Another bright year beckoning for FIA WEC's LMGT3 class

The FIA WEC's LMGT3 class looks set to remain healthy in 2026, with a field packed with high-quality teams and drivers representing the current group of nine manufacturers.

Crucially, the category is set to receive an injection of fresh talent, including a new team to the championship, as it continues to mature as a platform.

At Aston Martin, Heart of Racing and Racing Spirit of Leman are set to return, with the former continuing in Hypercar with the Valkyrie and the latter back for a second season as it looks to cement its relationship with Aston Martin further.

As for the driver line-up at RSLM, the Bronze seat looks set to be filled by a new face, with American racer Derek DeBoer departing the team ahead of the end of his partial campaign in 2025 and fellow compatriot Anthony McIntosh believed to be targeting a move to WRT and BMW. Could Japanese veteran Takeshi Kimura, the ‘Car Guy’, join the French outfit for its second crack at World Championship glory? He recently tested the Vantage at the ELMS post-season test in Portimão with the French-flagged team.

According to team manager Herminie Barbier, he’d been searching for an opportunity to sample the Aston Martin for over a year. He enjoyed his first taste of the car when the moment finally arrived.

"For next year, we are working on our crew. It's our decision (rather than Prodrive’s). For the moment, nothing decided," she added in conversation with RACER.

Next up, BMW, and the headlines ahead of the winter months are that McIntosh is targeting the Bronze seat in the No. 31 car after impressing in outings at São Paulo and Fuji with Racing Spirit of Leman. He will test with WRT in the Rookie Test on Sunday.

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, meanwhile, is believed to be returning for a third full season with Vincent Vosse's outfit in the iconic No. 46.

And it's BMW that RACER understands has been a key driving force behind the change to the tire allocation rules for next year, which will see the teams supplied enough Goodyear rubber for each WEC race to make LMGT3 a single-stint tire formula.

It's a significant change in direction, which is understood to have led to the new-for-2025 Eagle Hard compound being shelved for 2026. It has also influenced the development of Goodyear's forthcoming 2027 compound, which RACER observed first-hand at the start of its track testing phase last month following extensive simulation work.

Corvette was one of the two brands present at Portimão for the first Goodyear 2027 tire test, with Charlie Eastwood at the wheel, driving solo with customer team TF Sport on behalf of the GM brand. The other was Porsche, with Iron Dame Michelle Gatting turning laps.

TF Sport is another team that will return to the WEC with the same brand in 2026, following confirmation that its partnership with Corvette has been extended by two years. Tom Ferrier's outfit, fresh from clinching the ELMS LMGT3 title, is in the mix for the WEC title in Bahrain on Saturday, and is pushing for further success next year as its ties with General Motors grow stronger.

It'll be a two-car effort in WEC for the British outfit, running in parallel with its complementary ELMS program that it hopes to expand to two cars.

The driver stable is where the changes will come. Fan favorite Ben Keating looks set for one more year of WEC competition, but beyond that, there are question marks about the driving squad for the No. 33 car as two standouts from the team's 2025 season, Jonny Edgar and Daniel Juncadella, look set to depart.

TF Sport has a new contract extension with Corvette, and might soon have some new drivers to go with it. Jakob Ebrey/Getty Images

Edgar's exit can be attributed to the driver grading process (before a successful appeal, he was bumped from Silver to Gold). Keating had decided on a new Silver before Edgar’s status was reinstated, believed to be Manthey 1st Phorm's Riccardo Pera.

Juncadella, meanwhile, will exit stage left because of his new driver role with Genesis Magma Racing and its debuting Hypercar program. Could Corvette factory driver Nicky Catsburg return to the WEC alongside his fellow GTE Am title winner from 2023?

In the other car, Salih Yoluc appears primed for a WEC return after being named for TF's Asian Le Mans campaign under the Racing Team Turkey banner.

As for Ferrari, 2026 will be a key season for the Prancing Horse as it debuts its evo-spec 296 LMGT3, targeting improvements to its aero package, reliability, and set-up range. Interestingly, many of the changes have been derived from the tweaks required to make the base 296 GT3 LMGT3-eligible.

Current No. 21 driver Francois Heriau's Asian Le Mans Series campaign with Manthey has come as a surprise. Could that herald a change in the car's line-up? Heriau has told RACER his Porsche cameo over the winter has nothing to do with a change of team in the WEC. His teammate Simon Mann, meanwhile, adds that while nothing is confirmed yet for 2026, the intention is for the team to field a similar line-up.

Beyond Ferrari, Ford and Porsche will also bring updated machinery. The Ford Mustang GT3 Evo kit should make it sharper in sprint racing and a more well-rounded package for endurance events.

Proton Competition's partnership with the American brand will continue, as Christian Ried's outfit looks to break through and fight for both the title and victory at Le Mans, as the Blue Oval prepares for its highly anticipated Hypercar debut in 2027.

No names are currently listed against either Mustang in this weekend's Rookie Test.

For the Porsche 911 GT3 R, its 2026 Evo also sees aerodynamic improvements at the heart of its refined package, which will be put to the test by a pair of Manthey-operated examples. The key here is that the Iron Dames entry looks set to remain in the championship, even though Iron Lynx and Iron Dames are likely to scale back their motorsport programs to reduce spending from next season.

As for Iron Lynx, it is planning another LMGT3 effort with Mercedes-AMG too, which it hopes will take strides forward after a challenging debut season for the AMG GT3 on the world stage – one that came together late, and has taken much of the campaign to get up to speed.

Finding and signing suitable customers to take the Bronze seats is vital to keep the Italian team on the grid. If it is unsuccessful, then RACER has been assured that Mercedes-AMG will open up the opportunity to one of its other flagship customer teams and has no intention of stepping back from the championship.

That leaves Lexus and McLaren. AKKODIS ASP's planned long-term partnership with Lexus and Toyota will see it tackle the WEC for a third season with the RC F LMGT3.

The brand-new GT3 car from the Japanese concern, which is deep into its development cycle, is not expected to be ready in time for a full WEC season in 2026, so we may have to wait until 2027 to see it join the LMGT3 category.

The Lexus squad may see a change in line-up in at least one car. Notably, current Iron Lynx customer Martin Berry, TF Sport driver Tom van Rompuy and Le Mans Cup Hadrien David are all in line to test on Sunday.

Finally, McLaren will be represented by the GT3 Evo for a third season in the World Championship, but operated by a new team making its championship debut: Garage 59.

The British outfit, run by Andrew Kirkaldy, has a race and title-winning pedigree with the Woking brand in SRO competition, and is stepping in to fill United Autosports' shoes. It is moving to a much larger site to accommodate this new venture and its other programs, thereby improving McLaren's chances of remaining in both categories once the Hypercar program debuts in 2027.

As for its driver roster, little is known at this stage. Is the addition of team co-owner Alex West to the Rookie Test entry a hint that he will form the basis of one of the team's two crews?

On the other side of the coin, for Richard Dean and Zak Brown's United Autosports team, it will be a brief absence from the WEC. After spending 2026 developing McLaren's LMDh prototype, it will race in the top class for the first time after a year away.