Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa Crowned World Champions as Toyota Caps Dominant Season at Monza

There was no champagne-soaked duel at Monza, no last-lap lunge for the lead. The 2026 World Endurance Championship was won the quiet way, with a car cruising home in eleventh place, its drivers knowing long before the flag that the job was done. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa are the Hypercar drivers' world champions — and the understated finish said everything about how they got there: eight rounds of relentless consistency, not one afternoon of heroics.

The #8 Toyota had only to finish ahead of trouble. The only threat sat in the sister garage, where the #7 crew — the men who had won Le Mans — needed a near-miracle to overturn the standings. It would have taken another top-two finish from the #7 car and a disaster for the #8. Neither happened. The #8 came home eleventh, and the margin in the end was seventeen points.

It was, by Toyota's own admission, a frustrating afternoon. Both cars struggled for pace at Monza, caught in a race broken up by incident after incident, with no strategic lever left to pull. "It was a bit sad that we were not able to fight today; we were a bit too slow," Buemi said, "but after Barcelona we had a decent lead over car seven."

The decisive work had been done weeks earlier. Toyota's overhauled Le Mans Hypercar was the car to beat for most of the year — fast, near-bulletproof, and kind to its Michelin tyres in a way no rival could match. The #8 crew won half the season's races, Le Mans included, and stood on the podium three more times. Back-to-back wins at Fuji and Catalunya sealed it, the second arriving after the #7 car retired from the lead at Austin.

"It's amazing to share this moment with Brendan and Ryo," Buemi said. "Clearly, losing Le Mans was hard, but winning the championship makes up for it a bit. The win at Fuji put us into championship contention, and then we had that amazing race in Barcelona." For Buemi and Hartley, the title adds a fifth world championship to each of their tallies. Hirakawa now has three.

Hartley framed the year as redemption after a difficult stretch. "As a team we celebrated in Barcelona, clinching the manufacturers' title, which felt incredible after a tough couple of years, missing Le Mans by a whisker and not taking the manufacturers' title last year," he said. The manufacturers' crown had already been sealed a race early, with a one-two finish at Barcelona.

Monza also closed a chapter. Mike Conway, part of the #7 crew, drove his final race before stepping away from the sport, and there was no fairytale ending for the Briton, whose car finished behind the #8. He leaves with a Le Mans victory from his final season to look back on. "I'm a bit sad to end it like that, but in the end it's not just one race, it's the whole season, and we can be proud of the results we've achieved this year," Conway said. "I'll miss everyone."

"It's just a massive moment and a massive achievement for us," Hirakawa summed up. "We came with a new package and won everything. We can be proud as drivers, as a team, but at the same time we want to be stronger next year. We can't wait." Toyota's return to form, after a rough 2025, has put the rest of the Hypercar field on notice — and the defence of this title starts now.