WEC's 100th race at Fuji: centenary highlights Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin

The WEC marked its 100th race at Fuji Speedway, tracing back to its launch at Sebring in March 2012, and the centenary retrospective catalogued the series’ evolution through numbers, milestones and defining episodes. Manufacturer tallies highlighted the championship’s competitive breadth — Porsche 71 wins, Ferrari 63 and Aston Martin 53 across WEC classes — and the review noted that Michelin has been the tyre supplier for every overall WEC winner and also reached its own centenary. The series’ sporting framework and safety controls were recorded too, including the VSC/FCY speed cap of 80 km/h, while the Lone Star Le Mans at COTA was identified as the WEC’s 70th six‑hour race and this season comprised 72 hours of racing across eight rounds.

The retrospective revisited headline incidents that shaped results and grids: the 2018 Silverstone disqualification of both factory Toyotas for excessive plank wear handed overall victory to the Rebellion R13 crew of Beché, Laurent and Menezes — the first overall WEC win by a non‑factory LMP1 contender. Earlier crises such as Audi and Porsche withdrawing in 2016–17 and the pandemic‑era shift to the Hypercar formula were linked to structural change, and the move toward IMSA convergence, the inclusion of GT3 machinery and active Balance of Performance (BoP) management were credited with revitalising fields. The piece also noted shorter‑lived programmes that nonetheless left marks, from Ginetta’s G60‑LMP1 ending after four races to Garage 56 experimental entries, and recorded key championship outcomes such as Team WRT clinching the final LMP2 title by a 59‑point margin in 2023 and Manthey’s #92 Porsche taking the inaugural LMGT3 title in 2024.

Human stories and recent firsts completed the centenary portrait: Frédéric Sausset’s Garage 56 #84 was the first Garage 56 car to finish Le Mans in 2016 and Sausset later founded an academy for mobility‑impaired drivers, while the Iron Dames scored a Monza pole, podium and a second place in GTE Am in 2023. This season brought manufacturer milestones too: Akkodis ASP put Lexus on pole at Spa with the #78 RCF and the #87 Lexus RCF delivered Lexus’s first WEC victory at Interlagos, and AF Corse’s #83 Ferrari won at COTA and secured an overall Le Mans triumph this season. Sébastien Buemi, who has 91 career WEC starts and had an 89‑race consecutive run that ended when he missed Spa this season, reflected that BoP and marginal sporting details now often decide outcomes; he also helped Toyota secure the Manufacturers’ World Championship in Bahrain. With two races remaining this season and championships settled, Toyota’s immediate aim is to return the GR010 to the top step and end a near‑year‑long win drought.