Endurance racing fans are facing an awkward scheduling headache this October. The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and the FIA World Endurance Championship are set to race on the exact same weekend, with Portimao and Barcelona hosting rounds on identical dates. The clash forced SRO Motorsports Group to revise the schedule for what will be the final Endurance Cup round of the 2026 season.
Portimao Barcelona same weekend: how the clash happened
The conflict emerged once WEC confirmed that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya would replace Qatar as the championship’s penultimate round of 2026. It’s a familiar problem in endurance and GT racing, where clashes regularly crop up between major series including IMSA, the DTM, the European Le Mans Series and International GT Open, often leaving drivers and teams with difficult calls to make.
SRO, led by Stephane Ratel, moved quickly to find a workaround, shifting the three hour Algarve race to Saturday evening, 17 October, with a 5pm local start. The goal is to give anyone committed to both championships a genuine shot at a double header, though it won’t be simple. The two circuits sit more than 10 hours apart by road, making flying the only realistic route, via Barcelona to Faro, the nearest airport to Portimao, followed by roughly an hour’s drive to the track. A one hour time difference between Portugal and Spain works slightly in drivers’ favour, at least.
Ratel acknowledged there’s still real uncertainty over what drivers will actually be able to pull off, but stressed the intent behind the revised schedule is simply to keep both options open for anyone racing across both series.
Which drivers face the toughest choices
Contractual priorities will likely decide plenty of these calls, particularly for drivers tied to different manufacturers across the two championships. Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon both fall into that category, racing a Mercedes for Verstappen Racing in GT World Challenge Europe while holding full season WEC drives with Genesis and Alpine respectively. Championship position adds another layer, since Barcelona’s six hour format means both Genesis and Alpine could field two driver line-ups if needed to ease the pressure.
Mercedes has its own dilemma with Maxime Martin, who splits his time between a WEC LMGT3 programme with Iron Lynx and a GT World Challenge Europe PRO campaign with GetSpeed Performance. Aston Martin faces something similar with Mattia Drudi and Marco Sorensen, teammates in Comtoyou Racing’s Vantage GT3 entry, while Drudi races full time for The Heart of Racing in WEC LMGT3 and Sorensen drives the Valkyrie in Hypercar. Sorensen’s side of the puzzle may be easier to solve, with THOR Team potentially drafting in an IMSA driver, most likely Roman De Angelis or Ross Gunn, as cover.
Ferrari AF Corse WEC operation spans three championships at once
Ferrari’s situation is arguably the most tangled of all. Alessio Rovera normally drives the #21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and remains in the title fight, while Nicklas Nielsen is a key part of the #50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar line-up. Both also feature in the #51 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO entered in GT World Challenge Europe, leaving Ferrari with genuinely difficult decisions that may hinge on where the championship standings sit closer to October. Complicating matters further, AF Corse runs Ferrari’s Hypercar, LMGT3 and GT World Challenge programmes all at once, so beyond driver availability, the team also has to weigh whether it has the personnel to properly cover all three simultaneously.
McLaren and Garage 59 face a comparable challenge after taking over the manufacturer’s WEC 720S LMGT3 programme from United Autosports this season. Tom Fleming, Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhofer all race across both championships, while Antares Au drives for McLaren in one series and for Rutronik Racing’s Porsche in the other.
WRT BMW dual programme creates the biggest logistical puzzle
The most complex organisational headache likely belongs to Team WRT, despite its recent expansion to support BMW’s IMSA Hypercar effort. The Belgian squad fields at least three BMW M4 GT3 EVOs in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup while simultaneously running BMW’s Hypercar and LMGT3 entries in WEC.
Raffaele Marciello competes in the BMW M Hybrid V8, while Augusto Farfus and Dan Harper race the M4 GT3 EVO. Marciello and Farfus also drive for Rowe Racing in GT World Challenge Europe, while Harper stays with WRT alongside Valentino Rossi. Sean Gelael faces a different kind of decision entirely, since as a non factory BMW driver he’ll need to choose between WRT’s #32 BMW in WEC or AF Corse’s #50 Ferrari in GT World Challenge Europe.
There’s still time before the October clash for teams and manufacturers to lock in their plans. Before that, SRO runs its Nurburgring Endurance Cup round at the end of August, while WEC still has rounds at Austin and Fuji to get through first.
