Toyota expects BMW to have a “performance advantage” on the World Endurance Championship’s first visit to Barcelona after the German manufacturer conducted a private test at the venue in the build-up to the race.
The 2026 WEC will end with a pair of six-hour races in Europe after the originally planned events in Qatar and Bahrain had to be cancelled due to the war in West Asia.
While Hypercar teams already have a strong understanding of Monza, which was on the calendar until 2023 and returns as the season finale on 8 November, this weekend’s Barcelona round represents a major step into the unknown. Outside of a Prologue test ahead of the 2019/20 season, WEC has never ventured to the 4.56km circuit located on the outskirts of Spain’s second biggest city.
But BMW, Cadillac and Genesis booked the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 27 August, running their LMDh prototypes on the full grand prix circuit to prepare for the penultimate round of the season.
Toyota was not able to plan a similar test in the two-month gap between the Sao Paulo and Austin races, and believes it is now on the back foot compared to its championship rival.
“When it was announced that Barcelona would be on the calendar, it was difficult to organise a test there because we had logistics already in Brazil on the way here [to Fuji],” Toyota technical director David Floury said. “So, it was a bit difficult. We could not organise a test there.
“We will try our best. We will work on the simulator before the race to prepare. We need to maximise free practice to get stronger.
“For sure, they [BMW] should have a performance advantage.”
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TR010: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: JEP
Nyck de Vries, who won the Le Mans 24 Hours this year with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid, echoed Floury’s sentiment that the lack of testing was far from ideal for the Japanese manufacturer’s preparations.
“The majority of the competition has had some testing on those specific tracks [Barcelona and Monza] and we haven't, which I would say is not ideal.
“I do think it's slightly suboptimal that we know that our competition has had the chance to run at those tracks and somehow we haven't. It's never straightforward in terms of logistics, timing, track availability, etc.”
BMW responds
BMW motorsport boss Andreas Roos acknowledged that the Munich-based marque benefited from its Barcelona test, but expects the field to remain closely matched this weekend.
“We were testing in Barcelona, so we have a quite good reference,” he said. When it was clear that there would be a race this year, we managed to go there for testing.
“But with us, there were some other teams also testing in Barcelona.
“It's not an unknown track, I would say. For sure, with the Hypercar [class], it's a bit new, but as a manufacturer, you have been quite often already in Barcelona [either with hypercar or GT3 cars]. So at the end, it will be tight.”
Factory BMW driver Sheldon van der Linde, who was present for the initial rollout and the subsequent one-day test in Barcelona, says the early running allowed the factory WRT team to analyse how the car behaved at the high-downforce Spanish venue.
“I'm happy that we went testing there,” he said. “We have a lot of tools in the toolbox to execute on the race weekend.
“We know what to expect, we know what to work on, we know where our weaknesses and strengths are for that track specifically.
“So we've definitely done our homework and we will continue to do so until that race weekend. But we feel confident that we have the right tools.”
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