GTWC 6hrs of Paul Ricard: EVERYTHING you need to know.

Text: Rick Kiewiet

Images: SRO

The GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS opens its 2026 season at Circuit Paul Ricard this weekend, with a 59-car field contesting a six-hour race running from 18:00 through to midnight on Saturday. It is the 14th consecutive year the series has visited the French circuit, and one of the more eventful season openers in recent memory.

New in 2026: Lamborghini's Temerario and F1 driver(-s?)

The headline addition on the machinery front is the Lamborghini Temerario GT3, which makes its European debut here. It replaces the Huracán — winner of every major GT World Challenge honour between 2015 and 2025 — and arrives with a V8 engine in place of its predecessor's V10. Reigning Endurance Cup champions Rutronik Racing have made the switch from Porsche to run the Temerario in the Pro class, though they retain a #97 Porsche in Bronze with Antares Wu, Riccardo Pera and Loek Hartog.

TGI Team by GRT also fields the car, with Lamborghini's longest-serving factory driver Mirko Bortolotti among its crew. Ferrari, Porsche and Ford have all introduced updated machinery, with both the 296 and the 911 now carrying the Evo designation. Boutsen VDS has ended its relationship with Mercedes-AMG and switches to Porsche, fielding two full-season entries. Eastalent Racing continues to carry the Audi flag with the R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, Christopher Haase and Simon Reicher as the core pairing.

On the format side, qualifying for the Endurance Cup gains a split-group structure: Silver and Bronze runners take 10 minutes per segment, with Pro and Gold runners following immediately after. Pre-Qualifying becomes Free Practice 2, removing restrictions on what teams can do in the session, with both FP sessions running 90 minutes at Endurance rounds. Calendar-wise, Zandvoort moves to September — placing it in the thick of the title fight — while Portimão replaces Valencia as the season finale, returning for the first time since 2015.

Team WRT retains van der Linde and Weerts in the #32 BMW for the Sprint Cup title defence, with Jordan Pepper joining for Endurance rounds. Valentino Rossi returns under his familiar #46, paired with Max Hesse for Sprint events and Dan Harper for Endurance. ROWE Racing fields two Pro-class BMWs, the #998 crew including FIA F3 race winner Tim Tramnitz — one of more than 30 rookies on the grid. Verstappen Racing moves up to Pro as Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, with Chris Lulham, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon. At AF Corse, Lilou Wadoux joins the #50 Ferrari crew alongside Sean Gelael and Arthur Leclerc, becoming the first female driver to contest the Pro Endurance Cup for a full season.

Garage 59 has strengthened its top entry with factory drivers Marvin Kirchhöfer and Dean MacDonald united in the #59 McLaren, Joseph Loake completing the Endurance Cup crew. Kirchhöfer described it as the strongest McLaren line-up seen in the series in some time.

The biggest talking point is Lance Stroll's late addition to the entry list. The Aston Martin F1 driver makes his GT3 debut in the #18 Comtoyou Racing Vantage alongside Roberto Merhi and Aston Martin Academy driver Mari Boya, after the cancellation of F1's Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds freed up a month in his schedule. The idea came over dinner in Suzuka. "Jean-Michel [Baert] was very accommodating, and we organised everything in about a week," said Stroll. Team owner Baert recalled Stroll's first words on arrival: "Before even saying hello, he said: 'Thank you for making this possible.'" Stroll has not driven a GT car in a decade and is open to further outings if the weekend goes well.

Expected front-runners — and what the Prologue told us

BMW arrives as the pre-event favourite having won this race back-to-back, with Team WRT's two Pro entries and ROWE Racing's pair giving the manufacturer four factory-backed cars. Marciello, van der Linde and Dennis are among the drivers. Mercedes-AMG will challenge through three factory-supported cars including the newly elevated Verstappen Racing entry. Garage 59 is also well placed — McLaren has historically performed strongly at Paul Ricard, and Kirchhöfer and MacDonald represent a credible threat. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari and #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, both stacked with works drivers, are further names to watch.

In the class battles, Kessel Racing starts as Bronze Cup favourite with Blattner, Marschall and new addition Lorenzo Patrese. Paradine Competition brings Dries Vanthoor for the opener, and the unchanged CSA Racing crew — last year's Paul Ricard class winners — will again be in the mix. The Gold Cup is wide open following Verstappen Racing's promotion, with Garage 59's McLaren considered the narrow favourite for round one.

The Prologue offered some early pointers. Haase topped the combined timesheets in the #84 Eastalent Audi with a 1:54.352, three tenths clear of Preining's #80 Lionspeed Porsche. Picariello was third for Boutsen VDS, Schiller best of the Mercedes runners in fifth, and Doerr's #23 RJN McLaren headed the Silver Cup in sixth. The top 39 cars were covered by one second — a sign of how competitive the weekend is likely to be.

Two Prologue incidents carry consequence. The #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin has been withdrawn after Jamie Day's Turn 7 crash caused damage deemed too severe to repair in time. Mari Boya also brought out the red flags in the #18 Comtoyou car following a Turn 2 accident, though the crew's race preparations remain on track.

Track action resumes Friday (today) with the Bronze Test at 09:00, Free Practice 1 at 14:25 and FP2 at 19:25. Qualifying is Saturday at 12:05, with the six-hour race starting at 18:00.