The opening of the 2026 season of the WEC, the World Endurance Championship, will be special for TOYOTA Racing. When the start for the 6 Hours of Imola is triggered, on April 19 at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit, in Italy, the Japanese manufacturer will reach its hundredth race in the world’s premier championship for long-duration racing.
TOYOTA Racing is the only team to have competed in every season of the WEC’s history. Since the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012, a race that marked the third milestone in the history of the WEC, the team has logged 99 starts, with an impressive record of 49 victories, five of them at Le Mans, across 13 seasons. Since 2016 the team has won at least one race per season.
In 13 seasons, TOYOTA Racing has been World Drivers’ Champion six times. When considering the battles for the World Constructors’ Championship, the Japanese manufacturer has an even more dominant performance. There are seven team titles in the top class, whether in the LMP1 era or after the introduction of Hypercars.
The Imola race will also be special for Kamui Kobayashi, a driver and the head of TOYOTA Racing in the WEC. The driver, who joined the team in 2016, will reach 70 races with the manufacturer at Imola, and already has 18 victories, including a triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021. The Japanese racer has been with Toyota since the LMP1 era, moving into the current Hypercars era.
“I am very proud to be part of this hundredth race. It was very challenging when we joined, as at that time we were racing in LMP1, but at the same time the car was very fast,” Kobayashi said in a video published by TOYOTA Racing in reference to the arrival of the manufacturer’s hundredth WEC race.
“As Toyota, we have had great achievements. We have had so many wins, competed for so many championships and I think reaching 100 races, in Toyota’s long history, is a great opportunity. I am very proud to be part of this project,” Kobayashi adds, who this season will continue sharing driving duties with Mike Conway and Nyck De Vries.
The 2026 WEC season will feature eight rounds, starting in Imola on April 19 and ending on November 7 in Bahrain. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for June 13, while the 6 Hours of São Paulo, the Brazilian round of the championship, will mark the fourth round of the year on July 12.
