WEC Confirms Barcelona And Monza To Close Out 2026 Season

Qatar and Bahrain are gone from WEC's 2026 calendar for good. The championship has confirmed that Barcelona and Monza will bring the season home in Europe instead, after the Gulf ceasefire that had briefly held things together came apart.

It's official now rather than a working plan. WEC will make its first ever visit to Spain on October 18th, when the 6 Hours of Barcelona takes the date that had been pencilled in for the rescheduled Qatar round. Monza then closes the year on November 8th, taking over the slot that belonged to the Bahrain finale, with both events run to six hours.

The reasoning comes down to geography as much as anything. The ceasefire between Iran and the US and Israel didn't hold, and with both sides back to trading attacks and commercial shipping still steering well clear of the Strait of Hormuz, getting equipment into the Gulf by sea, which is how WEC moves most of its freight, stopped being realistic. Series promoters the FIA and the ACO have chosen to end the year closer to home rather than keep gambling on a region that hasn't settled down.

Qatar's race had already been through one rewrite. What was meant to open the season back in March got pushed to October instead, and now it's been dropped altogether rather than moved a second time. Bahrain's finale slot goes the same way, replaced outright rather than rescheduled.

Monza isn't new to this championship. It hosted WEC's Italian round for three seasons running before Imola took over, so November's race marks a return rather than a debut, even if Barcelona's the venue breaking genuinely new ground.

There's a scoring wrinkle worth knowing about too. Because Barcelona and Monza are six hour races rather than the eight and ten hours Bahrain and Qatar were built around, they'll pay out under WEC's standard scale, 25 points for the win, rather than the 38-point points-and-a-half system reserved for the championship's longer rounds. For anyone still chasing the title as the season winds down, that's fewer points to play with than they might have banked on.

What isn't yet confirmed is what happens with the rookie test, usually held the day after the finale, or how the calendar shuffle affects the wider clash with GT World Challenge Europe's Portimao weekend that this move was already expected to create. Both look like the next things to watch as the details get filled in.

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