The FIA World Endurance Championship heads overseas for its first long-haul event of the season this weekend (10-12 July), as competitors prepare to tackle the iconic Autódromo José Carlos Pace and the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo – round four of the series’ 2026 campaign.
Brazil’s premier motorsport venue featured on the inaugural FIA WEC calendar in 2012, remaining a popular stop on the schedule for three editions prior to rejoining the fray following a decade-long absence in 2024. Twelve months ago, almost 85,000 enthusiastic fans filled the grandstands and spectator banks – the third-highest attendance of the year – generating an electrifying atmosphere.
More commonly known as Interlagos – reflective of its geographical location between two large artificial lakes in the southern suburbs of South America’s largest city – the track’s flowing, 4.309km anti-clockwise layout is the shortest of the season, with Hypercars reaching speeds in the region of 305km/h and approximately half of the lap spent at full-throttle.
Its altitude – at almost 800 metres above sea level – pushes cars to the limit and challenges teams to keep their cool, with frequent changes in elevation making it particularly demanding for drivers and plentiful overtaking opportunities guaranteeing exhilarating action from lights-to-flag.
While qualifying for long-distance contests is rarely the major key to success – the average starting slot of the three Hypercar winners to-date in 2026 is just ninth, and even further back in LMGT3 in 12th – at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, it has traditionally mattered rather more. The race has never been won outright from beyond the front row, with no victory achieved in any class from lower than fifth on the grid. With Saturday duly every bit as significant as Sunday, a memorable weekend looks assured!
The latest four FIA WEC bouts in Brazil have each gone the way of a different manufacturer, and no circuit has ever produced five different winners consecutively – meaning history could be made this weekend. Of the current Hypercar crop, only Toyota and Cadillac have triumphed at the track – with the Japanese giant the sole marque since the world championship’s inception to have prevailed there more than once.
Indeed, Interlagos was the scene of Toyota’s breakthrough victory in the series in just its third outing back in 2012, and the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning TR010 Hybrid will be aiming to follow in the wheeltracks of its ultra-successful TS030 Hybrid and GR010 Hybrid predecessors, both of which took the chequered flag first in São Paulo.
Mike Conway – one of the members of last month’s La Sarthe-conquering #7 crew, the current world championship leaders – will become only the third driver to reach 90 appearances in FIA WEC, joining TOYOTA RACING stablemate Sébastien Buemi and Manthey LMGT3 class veteran, Richard Lietz. Both Conway and Buemi are counted amongst the 11 previous winners in São Paulo in the 2026 field, in company with Toyota team-mates, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa.
Last year, the story was all about Cadillac, as the American brand broke its duck courtesy of a commanding one-two demonstration with British partner, JOTA. The V-Series.R returns to the Autódromo José Carlos Pace as the Hypercar lap record-holder in both qualifying and race trim, and their 2025 victory in South America made Will Stevens and Norman Nato winners on every continent the championship has visited.
Since that day, however, Cadillac has yet to reach the rostrum again, with its best subsequent finish being fourth place at Le Mans last month – doubling its determination to replicate its champagne celebration in Brazil.
If Toyota leads the way in the chase for the crown and Cadillac is the in-form marque at Interlagos, then BMW is the dark horse heading into the weekend. The current campaign is the first in which three different crews have led the standings in the top-tier over the course of the opening three rounds, and one of them was the Bavarian manufacturer’s #20 line-up of René Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde, who spearheaded a top two lockout at Spa-Francorchamps and backed that up by scooping the runner-up spoils last time out at La Sarthe.
The Belgian result – on Team WRT’s home soil – marked BMW’s first outright victory in global endurance racing in almost 27 years, and having conceded the championship lead to Toyota in north-western France three weeks ago, the German car maker is eager to redress the balance.
And then, of course, there is Ferrari. The reigning world champion’s dominant early-season run in 2025 came to an abrupt halt in São Paulo, and the striking scarlet and yellow prototypes have not won a race since. Nor has the 499P ever placed higher than fifth in Brazil – a statistic the team will be keen to quash this weekend.
As in Hypercar, FIA WEC hailed a new LMGT3 winner at Interlagos last year, following a similarly impressive performance by Akkodis ASP Team’s Lexus RC F. The result represented redemption for the Jérôme Policand-helmed outfit, having had to withdraw one of its cars from the event the previous campaign due to damage sustained in an FP1 accident for Clemens Schmid – the only LMGT3 entry to miss a race to-date.
At the same venue 12 months on, the Austrian stormed to his maiden victory in the series with team-mates Petru Umbrărescu and José María López – making the latter the first driver to prevail in both of the current FIA WEC categories. Following a shaky start to the 2026 season marred by reliability issues at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps, Akkodis made good upon its palpable promise at Le Mans with a superb second-place finish, leaving the team brimful of confidence returning to the scene of its finest hour.
To reproduce its 2025 success, Lexus will need to get the better of eight high-calibre rivals – most notably Aston Martin, the only brand to register multiple LMGT3 rostrums in São Paulo. Underscoring the Vantage’s affinity with the track, no GT competitor has accumulated more top three finishes there than the British sportscar maker’s total of eight. Aston Martin is also the joint-winningest marque at Interlagos across all FIA WEC classes combined.
As an indication of the form guide, the three LMGT3 manufacturers that celebrated on the podium in Brazil last year – Lexus, Aston Martin and Corvette – were reunited on the rostrum last month at Le Mans, while Imola winner BMW will be hoping to leverage the local knowledge in its #32 Team WRT M4 Evo in the shape of Augusto Farfus, one of two home heroes in the event alongside ‘Pipo’ Derani in Genesis Magma Racing’s #17 GMR-001 Hypercar.
LMGT3 heavyweights Ferrari and Porsche, conversely, both head to South America with a point to prove. Much like its bigger sibling in Hypercar, the Ferrari 296 has yet to claim a podium finish around the Autódromo José Carlos Pace – boasting no finish better than sixth – while Porsche’s 911 GT3 R has not won a race outside of Europe since its 2024 São Paulo success.
The on-track sessions will begin with free practice on Friday, 10 July. Qualifying – and the Hyperpole top ten shootout – starts at 14:30 local time (GMT-3) on Saturday, 11 July, with the six-hour race getting underway at 11:30 local time (GMT-3) on Sunday, 12 July.
Check out all the key information regarding the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo, including the full event timetable and entry list.
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