São Paulo preview: Toyota Chases Le Mans Momentum as Cadillac Defends São Paulo Crown

Text & Images: Rick Kiewiet

The World Endurance Championship heads overseas for round four this weekend, with the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo marking the first of the season's flyaway rounds. Toyota arrives at Interlagos on the front foot for the first time all year, while Cadillac returns to the scene of its breakthrough win looking to repeat the trick with one fewer driver than it managed it with last time.

Championship standings post-Le Mans

Toyota's sixth outright win at La Sarthe, backed up by a podium for the sister car, has moved the Japanese manufacturer to the top of the Hypercar standings. BMW, who led the way into Le Mans on the back of its maiden Hypercar win at Spa, sits in pursuit, with Ferrari further off the pace after a difficult 24 Hours. Cadillac remains the category's dark horse — podium-challenging pace at every round so far in 2026, but yet to actually get there. One thing this preview can't offer this year: the FIA and ACO have stopped publishing BoP tables from the start of the season, so there's no technical breakdown of the shifting performance windows to lean on this time around.

History also favours the reigning Le Mans winners in Brazil. Toyota has won two of the previous five WEC races at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, more than any other manufacturer, while Ferrari struggled for pace here last year and heads back with a point to prove.

Cadillac still undermanned

Almost exactly a year on from Hertz Team JOTA's maiden win in Brazil, the #12 V-Series.R lines up once more with Will Stevens and Norman Nato — this time without Alex Lynn, whose neck injury has now kept him out since the season opener.

Louis Delétraz, who deputised at Spa and Le Mans, isn't in the car either, leaving Stevens and Nato to try and repeat last year's result as a duo. Aston Martin's two Valkyries follow the same pattern, with the #007 of Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell and the #009 of Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen also reverting to two-driver line-ups this weekend.

IMSA clash reshuffles the LMGT3 grid

A clashing IMSA WeatherTech round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park has forced two changes to the LMGT3 entry list, and both point to where the drivers involved see their priorities this weekend. Eduardo (Dudu) Barrichello skips his home race, with Kobe Pauwels stepping into the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin for a second time this year — Barrichello currently leads the GTD class in IMSA, and staying there presumably counts for more than a trip home for one race.

Nicky Catsburg makes the same call for reasons that make just as much sense: GTD Pro is effectively a sort-of home championship for General Motors, and points there with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller understandably take precedence over São Paulo. Nico Varrone replaces him in the Le Mans-winning #33 TF Sport Corvette alongside Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar, returning to the WEC grid for the first time since last year's Bahrain finale.

Elsewhere, Esteban Masson is back in Akkodis ASP's #78 Lexus after his LMP2 diversion at Le Mans.

With the standings freshly reshuffled and Cadillac short-handed once more, São Paulo looks well placed to keep the second half of the season just as unpredictable as the first.