BMW M Team WRT Team Principal Vincent Vosse praised his team’s strategy and Augusto Farfus’ “incredible drive” after a difficult 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) 6 Hours of Fuji ultimately produced podium finishes in both Hypercar and LMGT3.
Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor finished third in the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 after WRT capitalised on a late Safety Car and prioritised track position during the final pit sequence. The result came despite Magnussen conceding that the crew did not possess the outright pace required to finish on the podium under normal circumstances.
The LMGT3 result went one better as Farfus charged from sixth following the final Safety Car to secure victory in the No. 32 BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo alongside Darren Leung and Sean Gelael. Farfus completed his recovery during a frantic closing stint, giving the trio a long-awaited first victory of a difficult 2026 campaign.
Speaking post-race to select media, including Pit Debrief, Vosse, Magnussen, Farfus, Leung and Gelael reflected on the strategy, execution and persistence that turned a challenging weekend into one of WRT’s strongest combined results of the season.
Vosse: “Considering where we started, that looks very good”
BMW entered the race facing a difficult task after Saturday’s Qualifying sessions were cancelled because of the wet conditions at Fuji Speedway. With the grid determined by Practice times, both M Hybrid V8s started outside the positions from which WRT would have hoped to challenge at the front.
The warning signs had already appeared during Saturday’s wet final Practice session, when the No. 15 BMW finished ninth as Alpine, Aston Martin and Peugeot occupied the leading positions. Alpine subsequently inherited the front row when conditions prevented Qualifying from taking place, leaving WRT with ground to recover during the six-hour race.
The No. 20 BMW’s prospects suffered another setback following contact that left the car one lap behind. Although WRT recovered the lap, the time lost ultimately proved too significant for the car to return to the leading battle. The No. 15 enjoyed a considerably stronger conclusion, with its late strategy call putting Vanthoor into contention for a podium.
Vosse felt third represented a strong return given where BMW had started and how the race developed.
“It was a tough weekend as usual here in Fuji. Starting far back with the Hypercars put us on the backfoot, of course. Unfortunately, we had contact with car 20, which put us one lap behind. We came back, but we were too far off as we had lost too much time. Great strategy from car 15, great drive from the drivers, and finally we got to P3. Considering where we started, that looks very good. In LMGT3, we had a very strong race until the last pit stop, where we had an issue which made us lose time on both cars. But then we had a flying stint from Augusto, who drove from P6 to the lead. That was an incredible drive. Thanks to him for giving us the victory.”
The results gave WRT a podium in both categories for the second time during the 2026 campaign. The team had previously achieved the feat in São Paulo, where the No. 15 crew claimed BMW’s second Hypercar victory of the season while the No. 69 finished second in LMGT3.
Strategy rescues Hypercar podium
For much of the race, the No. 15 did not appear positioned to challenge the Alpines at the front. Alpine controlled much of the opening five hours, while Aston Martin briefly emerged as another victory contender before the No. 007 received a drive-through penalty.
WRT’s opportunity arrived during the final hour when Finn Gehrsitz crashed the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren at Turn 1, triggering a Safety Car and compressing the field. The interruption created one final strategic opportunity for the Hypercar teams and ultimately transformed the fight for the podium.
BMW prioritised track position with the No. 15 rather than following Alpine onto the same fresh-tyre strategy. The decision moved Vanthoor into the leading group and placed the BMW second for the restart, behind Ryō Hirakawa in the No. 8 Toyota.
Victor Martins had considerably fresher tyres aboard the No. 36 Alpine and eventually passed Vanthoor during his charge towards Hirakawa. However, third still represented a substantial improvement on where the BMW had spent much of the race, with the No. 15 completing the podium behind Toyota and Alpine in the final Fuji classification.
Magnussen credited WRT’s pit wall and pit crew with creating a result that he did not believe the car’s outright pace would otherwise have delivered.
“It is a great result for us. The great work of the pitwall and the pitstop crew made the difference today. We didn’t have the pace to finish on the podium, but we still did. We kept it clean all race. So, it was a great job by the team today and congrats to everyone.”
The podium provided an important result for BMW on a weekend when the No. 20 failed to score. Magnussen and Marciello consequently moved to 69 points in the Drivers’ Championship, while BMW remained second to Toyota in the Manufacturers’ standings after the Japanese manufacturer converted its own late strategic gamble into victory.
Farfus turns LMGT3 setback into opportunity
WRT faced a different challenge with the No. 32 BMW in LMGT3. Farfus, Leung and Gelael remained competitive during an unpredictable race, but repeated Safety Car periods prevented the crew from fully capitalising whenever its strategy appeared to be moving in the right direction.
The final pit sequence created another setback. An issue cost both WRT LMGT3 entries time, leaving Farfus sixth when the field prepared for the decisive restart. However, the Brazilian had the tyre performance required to attack and immediately began working his way through the cars ahead.
His recovery became one of the defining sequences of the Fuji race. Farfus climbed from sixth into podium contention before reaching the lead, then resisted the late challenge from Mattia Drudi in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin to secure victory.
For Farfus, the final charge followed several points during the race when circumstances appeared to work against the No. 32 crew.
“Every time it looked good for us, the Safety Car came at the wrong time, and we ended up dropping back before making our way back up. Then, finally, in the last stint, we had another stop that didn’t go our way, but I managed to get through the traffic pretty quickly. I am extremely happy.”
The result added another victory to Farfus’ third consecutive WEC campaign with Team WRT after he remained as the experienced anchor of the revamped No. 32 LMGT3 line-up for 2026.
Leung finds relief after difficult season
While Farfus completed the decisive final stint, Leung and Gelael had ensured the BMW remained close enough to capitalise when the race presented another opportunity. That made the victory particularly significant for a crew that had endured a challenging campaign before arriving in Japan.
The No. 32 had shown flashes of competitive pace throughout the year without consistently converting that potential into the results its drivers wanted. Leung therefore described the Fuji victory as both satisfying and a relief after the difficulties the crew had faced.
“It has been a really difficult year for us. So it is very satisfying and a relief to get this result. So many people deserved more than what we have got this year so far. To finally have something come our way is amazing. Thank you to everyone, and especially to my teammates, who did an incredible job.”
The result also strengthened the No. 32 crew’s position as WRT attempts to finish the season strongly. Fuji rewarded the trio with a victory after a race that repeatedly forced them to recover, rather than one in which they simply controlled the class from the front.
Gelael points to COTA progress
Gelael traced part of the Fuji breakthrough back to the previous round at the Circuit of The Americas. WRT had used the Lone Star Le Mans to make improvements to the No. 32 package, even though the race itself did not produce the result the crew wanted.
Those changes gave the trio a stronger foundation heading into Fuji. Gelael felt the team’s persistence after COTA played an important role in eventually turning its work into a victory.
“I am super happy with everyone. We made a lot of improvements in COTA and we were persistent in working hard. It wasn’t easy today, but in the end, everything came our way. Hopefully, we can continue this momentum.”
The victory offered WRT a tangible reward for that development. Rather than arriving through a straightforward race from the front, it required the crew to remain within contention as Safety Cars and the final pit-stop problem repeatedly changed its position.
WRT maximises difficult Fuji weekend
WRT ultimately left Fuji with considerably more than the early stages of the weekend had suggested was likely. The Hypercar programme lacked the outright pace to fight Alpine at the front, while the LMGT3 crew repeatedly found its progress interrupted before the final pit stop created another obstacle.
Both programmes nevertheless capitalised on the opportunities created by the late Safety Car. The No. 15 Hypercar used strategy and track position to turn a difficult race into third, while Farfus used the No. 32 BMW’s tyre advantage to transform sixth at the restart into an LMGT3 victory.
The result continued a season in which WRT has already demonstrated its ability to turn strategy into major results. BMW’s breakthrough one-two at Spa-Francorchamps came after the team used an alternative strategy from outside the top 10, while the No. 15 later won in São Paulo as WRT secured podiums in both WEC categories.
Fuji required another recovery rather than outright domination. Magnussen acknowledged that the No. 15 did not have podium pace, while Farfus had to overcome the No. 32’s final-stop setback with a charge through the LMGT3 field. For Vosse, however, the outcome justified the team’s work in both categories: a Hypercar podium from a difficult starting position and an LMGT3 victory delivered by what he described as an “incredible drive”.
