Who’s going where in WEC? The 2026 driver market explained

It’s a seller’s market out there. Genesis, McLaren and Ford are on their way into the World Endurance Championship and the Hypercar driver market has been blown wide open. It’s not even the end of the season yet and the merry-go-round has started. 

Stoffel Vandoorne will drop out of the Peugeot line-up for the 2025 curtain-closer in Bahrain in November, to be replaced by Theo Pourchaire. He moves up from the test and reserve role ahead of joining the full-time line-up next year.

It is not, says the French manufacturer, quite the early departure that it looks on paper. Peugeot has stated that Vandoorne is out of contract post-Fuji later this month, which appears to make sense given that the Japanese round was his first race for the marque back in 2023 when he replaced the injured Nico Muller. 

It also makes sense that Peugeot is bringing in 2023 Formula 2 title winner Pourchaire for one race this year, to blood him in the WEC early, if you like, and further integrate him into the team. That’s particularly pertinent for a manufacturer that looks set for wholesale changes to its driver team in 2026.

The other knock-on is that it will allow Vandoorne to start testing with his new employer. Expect that to be Genesis, which is already up and running with the new GMR-001 LMDh that will arrive on the Hypercar grid next year. 

Pourchaire’s promotion isn’t going to be the only change at Peugeot for ’26. Formula E star Nick Cassidy is coming in as part of the wider deal with Peugeot parent company the Stellantis group. The New Zealander will be racing for the Citroen team, a rebrand of the Maserati MSG squad, alongside his duties in a 9X8 2024 Le Mans Hypercar.

The toings and froings at Peugeot reflect the state of the Hypercar driver market. There are other drivers on its books who are departing for pastures new, and not just Vandoorne. Mikkel Jensen is out of contract, and looks certain to leave. He’s been one of the stars, if not the star, at Peugeot over the past couple of years and has to be a man in demand. 

Where he goes hasn’t been announced as yet, but expect him to be revealed as a McLaren driver soon after the season is complete. The British marque won’t be joining the WEC until 2027, but it will need drivers next year as its LMDh begins testing. It has promised that the car, developed in conjunction with Dallara Automobili, will turn a wheel for the first time in the second quarter of the year. 

Jensen might not be the only Peugeot driver – nor the only Dane – on his way to McLaren. Malthe Jakobsen also appears to be on its hit list. Where he stands contract-wise as his first year as a race driver with the in-house Peugeot Sport squad comes to an end isn’t clear. 

Expect McLaren to follow the Porsche and Aston Martin model. That means naming two drivers for the regular six-hour WEC races with a third coming in for the big one at Le Mans and the Qatar and Bahrain eight and 10-hour races. 

Genesis might also be going down this route. It announced three-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani, who has won the Sebring 12 Hours four times, on the launch of the programme in Dubai last November. Since then it has been silent about drivers, though Genesis Magma Racing team principal Cyril Abiteboul said on a visit to the Austin WEC round earlier this month that its roster is “80% complete”. 

The second wave of signings could include Paul-Loup Chatin, currently on Alpine’s books, alongside Vandoorne. The Frenchman has links with the IDEC Sport squad, with which Genesis has formed an alliance this year on the trajectory programme in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series designed to get its personnel up to speed with endurance racing. Chatin is racing the IDEC ORECA-Gibson 07 it fields in the ELMS this season alongside the Genesis-branded car and enjoyed a stint with the team straddling seven seasons in 2017-23, winning the title in ’19. 

Genesis Magma Racing, GMR-001 Hypercar

Photo by: Genesis

The trajectory programme could yield the extra drivers Genesis would need if it opts for two regular drivers per car. Daniel Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert are very much in the frame for seats at the long WEC races.

Chatin is known to be out of contract at Alpine, and he’s not the only one. Frederic Makowiecki and Jules Gounon have deals going into next year, it is believed, while Charles Milesi looks to have signed a new one to extend his stay with the Renault brand. Ferdinand Habsburg isn’t set for 2026 and his future looks uncertain at this stage. 

Set to join Alpine is Antonio Felix da Costa, the FE champion never making any secret of his desire to return to the WEC after Porsche, his employer in the electric series, demanded that he concentrate on its programme ahead of the 2024 season. The Portuguese, who looks certain to be leaving the employ of Porsche, was much in demand, as you would expect of a driver who took P2 honours with Jota back in ’23. 

Da Costa was most definitely on Jota’s shopping list to fill the berth made free by Jenson Button’s decision to step down from full-time racing at the end of a two-year contract with the team. The reason it missed out on the Portuguese driver’s services appears to be one Mick Schumacher. 

Schumacher looked to be in pole position to take the vacant seat in what otherwise will be an unchanged line-up for next year in the pair of Jota Cadillacs. The US manufacturer, and perhaps the co-owners of the team, Knighthead Capital Management, appeared to like the idea of having a Schumacher in one of its cars. Think Birmingham City Football Club, also owned by the US investment group, bringing in Wayne Rooney as manager.

The deal looks dead, but perhaps not buried. Exactly why isn’t clear and may or may not have been related to Formula 1 – the German has yet to give up his aspirations at the highest level of the sport. But the knock-on of the Jota/Cadillac dalliance with Schumacher was that it lost the chance to sign its favoured son, da Costa.

#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Mick Schumacher

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Schumacher is now believed to be talking to McLaren, which supposes he wants out of Alpine. 

Ferrari has announced that it has re-signed four of its six drivers in recent months, a new deal for Nicklas Nielsen revealed last week following on from those for Antonio Giovinazzi, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina.

That leaves James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, whose last contract extensions came either side of Christmas 2023. It appears they will be next: Ferrari sportscar boss Antonello Coletta said at Le Mans that he didn’t foresee any changes in its line-up for 2026. 

Toyota appears to be a year away from making any changes to what is an ageing line-up and then there is the question of Porsche. If it does pull out of the WEC – and it is not committing to either of its programmes with the 963 LMDh for the moment – then what will happen to its drivers? Will they segue back into its GT programmes or become free agents? 

If it’s the latter, it could blow the driver market even wider open.