This year at Italian-Endurance.com, we’re trying on a very difficult sport: predictions for the coming season! Let’s try to imagine how 2026 will go in endurance and GT racing.

In our opinion, the 2026 WEC title will be a two-horse race between Ferrari and Toyota. It will be a head-to-head battle all the way to Bahrain, a circuit traditionally favorable to Japanese hypercars, so we see the updated GR010-Hybrid as a slight favorite to win over the Rosse.

Cadillac will be the surprise of the year, finally bringing an American manufacturer back to victory at Le Mans, although once again there will be episodes that will prevent Jota team from taking the overall title. Will Peugeot finally get its first victory? We don’t think so.

We’re not used to documenting the year’s disappointment, but we can already assume that the management of the “infamous” Balance of Performance will generate discussion and controversy. The uncertainties surrounding the new regulations do not match well for greater transparency of a key element of the current racing platform.

We expect a strong debut for Genesis Magma Racing, driven by its leaders on and off the track, with a preview to greater natural progression in 2027. Mathys Jaubert will be the championship’s revelation, along with a certain Chinese driver from AF Corse…

Among the LMGT3s, BMW and Porsche look as favorites. The driver roster that brought Darren Leung and Sean Gelael back to WRT, among others, leaves the Belgian team – despite the departures of Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde – once again with two noteworthy crews, especially on silver and bronze drivers. On the contrary, Manthey will see veteran Richard Lietz and the other two protagonists of the last titles won by the German team, Yasser Shahin and our Riccardo Pera, alternate in the #92 Porsche.

Among the major contenders, however, we cannot exclude the two highly-tested VISTA AF Corse crews, who only a bit of bad luck (and some race direction decisions) prevented them from fighting until the end for the class title in 2025…

In IMSA, after two seasons dominated by the Porsche 963s, now it’s time for Acura and Cadillac to shine in the GTP class in 2026, waiting for a more massive presence of LMH cars, currently represented only by the Aston Martin Valkyrie. We expect a battle all the way to Petit Le Mans between the Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06s and the V-Series.Rs of Whelen Racing and WTR, on a terrain more favorable to the Dallara-based LMDhs.

It’s harder to make a prediction for LM P2, where we imagine a multi-team battle, with two clear favorites: AO Racing and Crowdstrike by APR.

AO Racing is also a serious contender for a return to success in GTD Pro, thanks to the new line-up of Harry King and Nick Tandy. Obvious rivals include the Pratt Miller Corvettes and the Paul Miller Racing BMW. Finally, in GTD, Albert Costa, returning to Conquest Racing, could be a thorn in the side of Winward Racing‘s Mercedes, fresh from two consecutive titles, along with Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin.

2026 could finally see a German driver return to victory in the DTM. In fact, we have to go back to 2021 to find the latest German-born driver, Maxi Götz, triumphing in the series, succeeded by South African Sheldon van der Linde, Austrian Thomas Preining, Italian Mirko Bortolotti, and Turkish driver Ayhancan Güven. It’s still too early to make a precise prediction, however, as the only confirmed driver in the ADAC-run series is Dane Bastian Buus.

Remaining in the GT arena, a significant victory for the Ferrari 296 GT3 (EVO version from 2026) cannot be ruled out in the coming months, having consistently come close to the top step of the podium at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in recent years. The 2024 finale awaits revenge…

Also among the GTs, we expect Valentino Rossi first win in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, following his three career wins in the Sprint Cup and his triumph in the 8 Hours of Indianapolis of last year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC).

Finally, what kind of year will 2026 be for Mercedes? The historic AMG GT3 EVO has certainly won the IMSA-GTD championship for the second year in a row, but it lost out on both the DTM and every title available in the GTWC Europe and IGTC. There were also successive disappointments in the three major 24 Hour races held in June 2025: Le Mans, Spa and Nürburgring. The new year could bring one last success to the three-pointed star’s GT in its home 24 Hours, which they haven’t won in 10 years.

Will it really end like this? Who knows… See you on these pages in less than a year!

Piero Lonardo – Luca Pellegrini

Photo: Piero Lonardo with the aid of ChatGPT