Press release -
Kevin Magnussen after WEC finale: We’ll be back in 2026
After retiring from the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the Danish BMW factory driver looks ahead to the 2026 season, which will include an upgraded race car.
It didn’t go as hoped for Kevin Magnussen and the rest of the team from BMW M Team WRT in the eighth and final round of this year’s sports-car world championship, held on Saturday evening at Bahrain International Circuit. While their sister car succeeded in finishing in the points, the Dane and his teammates, Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello, were forced to retire in the last hour of the race due to a technical defect in their BMW M Hybrid V8.
“We had naturally hoped to finish the year off with a good result, but already during the preparations we had to admit that we simply didn’t have enough pace to fight for top results in Bahrain. It has been a challenging season, which started strongly with a fourth place in Qatar in the spring, but along the way we’ve failed to maintain the momentum and unlock the potential,” says Kevin Magnussen.
Kevin Magnussen started the eight-hour final from tenth on the grid in the 18-car Hypercar field, and although he performed a stellar job in the early stages of the race defending the team’s position, the BMW trio had to accept that the competition was too strong to be among the front-runners. It was, however, a loose rear wheel which ultimately forced the team out of contention with less than an hour to go until the checkered flag.
“Now the focus is on analysing how we get the best out of the upgraded version of our BMW M Hybrid V8, which we hope will enable us to return to the top of the Hypercar field in 2026. Many thanks to the entire team behind BMW M Team WRT,” adds Kevin Magnussen.
In the coming weeks, the Dane will turn his attention to testing the 2026 evolution of the factory team’s BMW M Hybrid V8, before his next major assignment: the iconic 24 Hours of Daytona in January.
