BMW win gives it confidence heading into Le Mans, but Hypercar is as close as ever

With BMW’s victory in Saturday’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, it feels like the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class has entered a new and intriguing phase. In the last seven races, dating back to the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours, seven different Hypercar models have won races, from six manufacturers, with Ferrari (Le Mans), Cadillac (Interlagos), Porsche (CoTA), Alpine (Fuji), Toyota (Bahrain and Imola) and now BMW (Spa) all taking turns on the top step of the podium.

The field looks closer than ever, and the races since Ferrari’s romp through the opening rounds of last season have become increasingly harder to predict. For now, at least, the noise from Balance of Performance’s harshest critics has been turned down a few notches, in part because of the recent decision to keep all BoP tables private (making it harder to point fingers) and, also, because in general, the rulemakers are seemingly getting a better handle on the extraordinarily complex process that governs the category.

Le Mans may still prove to be a different animal, of course. It’s by far the most important race; there’s no word yet on how the BoP will be set, and the brains trusts in the back of the Hypercar garages will undoubtedly have been working day and night to put their team in the best possible position to receive a swing in their favour. With the body of evidence we have to work with, it would surprise no one to see one of the era’s two bigger players, Ferrari or Toyota, come out and dominate with their mature, proven LMH-spec challengers. It does feel different this time, though.

Ferrari, through speed and execution, kept much of the field at arm’s length at Qatar, Imola and Spa in 2025, before making history at La Sarthe with a commanding third consecutive victory. Many in the paddock felt aggrieved and lobbied the rulemakers behind closed doors, making the case that their grip on the class was getting too loose.

This year, it has just two podium finishes to its name and has lacked the killer instinct it possessed last season. In the meantime, we’ve had a new winner in BMW, Toyota looks revitalized, Cadillac, Alpine, Aston Martin and Peugeot have all shown promise and even Genesis managed to get points on the board in just its second outing. There have been plenty of incidents and disappointing performances, but nobody looks truly lost at sea.

The countdown to Le Mans is on, and there’s plenty of build-up to look forward to. But in the meantime, BMW’s smash and grab at Spa deserves to be celebrated and put into context. It has become the eighth manufacturer in the current era to win a WEC race outright, and with a 1-2 finish, holds the lead in the manufacturers’ world championship ahead of the toughest month of the season. It also finally has a major ACO sportscar overall victory to its name for the first time this century. You have to rewind all the way back to the 1999 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the V12 LMR program to find the proud manufacturer’s last triumph in this area of the sport.

It’s been quite the turnaround for the Bavarian brand, which struggled in 2024 and 2025 to make an impact with its Dallara-based M Hybrid V8 program, up against the factory fleet in the top class. It’s not hard to argue that this result feels like it has come at a time when both BMW and WRT needed it most.

BMW's Hypercar program is delivering results, but the brand continues to assess its involvement. Jakob Ebrey/Getty Images

The economic outlook for many of the manufacturers invested in the WEC is worrying at best right now, and with BMW known to assess its participation in motorsport as a factory on a yearly basis, picking up headlines at this time of year will surely provide M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos, and those around him, with an injection of confidence for the board meetings to come. His agenda likely won’t just cover this year and next either, but also the changes to technical regulations for 2030, which are slowly but steadily approaching. By proving this is still worth the investment now, theoretically, it’ll be easier to make the case for resources in the future.

It’s hard to say whether this result - brought on via a ballsy strategy call for the winning car in the opening hour that paid off – would have been possible with the M Hybrid V8, before its aerodynamic overhaul during the winter. But the impression you get is that the tools WRT and BMW’s drivers have to work with have ensured the German-flagged, Belgian-operated outfit that now operates in Hypercar and GTP is far better equipped for the fight. For that reason, it appears there’s a good chance we see BMW’s challengers at the sharp end more regularly, and playing a role in the title race.

“A victory is always sweet, especially in a world championship that is so hard in terms of competition,” Roos, told RACER post-race. “It was a sad week for us last week because of the news of Alex (Zanardi)'s passing. He would have loved to see us winning here. But we are super happy to have this victory in the pocket. We kept working, we worked hard, we brought the evo update, which started with a P3 in Daytona, we got a P3 in Laguna and now a 1-2 this weekend. It feels good right now.

“All six of our drivers need to be thanked, too. We went for an aggressive split strategy, and all our drivers in the No. 20 BMW were able to produce the lap times. It was amazing teamwork all the way, especially at the end when Kevin (Magnussen) was defending. The (No. 50) Ferrari with Fuoco in had never tires, Kevin (in the No. 15) had a double stint on his tires, and of course, he pulled out of the stops to keep him behind.”

Race winner Sheldon van der Linde, who looked at his very best yesterday, adds that it shouldn’t be underestimated how much of a lift a performance like that can have on a team like WRT. Vincent Vosse’s operation had become used to dominating in GT3 competition before joining Hypercar, and has long set sky-high goals and aspirations as a factory team since strengthening its ties with BMW.

“It’s absolutely huge for us. It’s come at the perfect point,” he said. “Expectations get bigger to win the title and Le Mans every year, and we’re in year three. We didn’t expect it this weekend, starting P11, but sometimes you can take a risk and sometimes that risk can pay off.

“I absolutely think we can dream of something special at Le Mans now. We want to win it more than a championship. Winning a race was the first target; now it’s the big one. Whether we’ll have the same car in a few weeks remains to be seen, but we’ve definitely taken a step forward with the 2026 car with race pace, so if we can start closer to the front at that one, it could be a great weekend.”