Circuits · 3 min read · 473 words

What is the history of the 6 Hours of Fuji?

The 6 Hours of Fuji has been part of the WEC in every calendar year from 2012 to 2026 except 2020 and 2021, and WEC Engine's archive holds 13 WEC races at Fuji Speedway in Japan. Toyota, which owns the circuit, has won 10 of them. Porsche has 2 Fuji wins and Alpine 1.

Toyota's home race

Fuji Speedway, at the foot of Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture, is owned by Toyota, which also races in the WEC. The circuit hosted the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix in 2007 and 2008. Every WEC race at Fuji in the archive was held in September or October.

The winners, season by season

Toyota won the first WEC race at Fuji in 2012 with the No. 7 TS030 Hybrid of Alexander Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Nicolas Lapierre. It was Toyota's first home win in the championship; its first WEC win had come a month earlier at São Paulo. Toyota won again in 2013, in a race stopped by heavy rain after 16 laps, the shortest race in the archive from 2012 to 2026.

The TS040 Hybrid won in 2014. In 2015 the No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid broke the run. Toyota then won four Fuji races in a row with the TS050 Hybrid, in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The 2017 race also finished early in the wet, with the winning No. 8 on 113 laps, against 244 laps for the 2016 winner.

No WEC race was held at Fuji in 2020 or 2021. When the championship returned in 2022, the GR010 Hybrid won that year and in 2023.

The next two races went elsewhere. In 2024 the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of André Lotterer, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor won. In 2025 the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Paul-Loup Chatin took Alpine's first Fuji win. Alpine's earlier WEC wins had come with the A480 at Sebring and Monza in 2022.

Toyota won again in 2026. The No. 8 TR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa beat the No. 36 Alpine by 0.591 seconds after 203 laps.

What the results show

Toyota has won 10 of the 13 Fuji races in the archive, and 3 manufacturers have won there in all. The home advantage has not been absolute: Porsche won in the LMP1 era and again in the Hypercar era, and Alpine won in 2025.

Last updated · 6 hours of fuji · fuji speedway · toyota home race · japan · alpine

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Related questions

Circuits

Which circuit has hosted the most WEC events?

Spa-Francorchamps has hosted the most WEC races in WEC Engine's archive, with 15. Le Mans has 14 races in the archive, which leaves out the 2016 24 Hours, a WEC round that has not been ingested. Counting that race, Le Mans has hosted one more WEC race than the archive shows. Bahrain has 14, including two races in 2021, and Fuji 13. Spa and Le Mans are the only circuits that hosted a WEC race in every season from 2012 to 2026.

Manufacturers

What was the Toyota TS050 Hybrid era like?

The Toyota TS050 Hybrid raced in the WEC's LMP1 class from 2016 to 2020. It won 19 WEC races, including three consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans (2018, 2019 and 2020), and its crews won the drivers' world titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20. It is also the car of one of Le Mans' best-known late losses: in 2016 the leading TS050 stopped in the final minutes and Porsche won.

Drivers

Who has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar era?

Two manufacturers have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans since the Hypercar class arrived in 2021. Toyota won in 2021, 2022 and 2026, and Ferrari won three in a row from 2023 to 2025 with the 499P. Through the 2026 race, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi are the only drivers to have won it twice in the Hypercar era.