WRT did something similar at Spa with Rene Rast. The difference was once the German got some free air in front of him, he and team-mates Sheldon van der Linde<\/a> and Robin Frijns<\/a> did have the fastest car. The squad wasn\u2019t expecting that after its form through practice and qualifying, but it was still clever. WRT, rarely a team to fall short tactically, then brought a rear gunner into play, just as Toyota did in Italy. This time Kevin Magnussen<\/a>, aboard the second BMW, wasn\u2019t afforded fresh rubber at his final stop, so he could play a defensive role by protecting Frijns from the advances of another Ferrari driver, Antonio Fuoco<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fast forward to Interlagos last weekend, and the decision to pit the winning car from Spa early during the opening hour paid dividends for WRT and BMW<\/a>. Not for Rast and his co-drivers, but for Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello<\/a> and Dries Vanthoor<\/a> in the sister car. The seconds the #12 Cadillac spent bottled up behind #20 proved crucial in deciding the outcome of the race in the German manufacturer\u2019s favour. So not so much as clever, but different. And a bit lucky it\u2019s probably fair to say.<\/p>\n The\u00a0WEC is so intriguing right now for all the strategic variations we\u2019re seeing during the races. The #35 Alpine<\/a> led more laps than any other car over the course of the Sao Paulo 6 Hours, yet Ferdinand Habsburg<\/a>, Antonio Felix da Costa<\/a> and Charles Milesi<\/a> never really looked like potential winners. That might seem odd, but it\u2019s true because the French car was always going to need to make an extra pitstop after stopping early in hour one. The timely caution period of some kind it needed to get back on terms never came. \u00a0<\/p>\n At one point early in the second hour, #35 led the way from a further three cars that owed their lofty position on the leaderboard to a short fill of fuel at the first round of stops. The real leader – \u2018virtual leader\u2019 is a term that appears to be entering our vernacular – was the race-winning BMW down in fifth. A bit of good fortune for any of the cars ahead of it, which included the #20 Bimmer, could have given the race result a different look at the conclusion of the six hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n BMW took its second victory of WEC 2026 in Sao Paulo over the weekend<\/p>\n Photo by: JEP<\/p>\n It made for an interesting race, a strange one even. Nothing was more bizarre, though, than the sight of James Calado<\/a> setting competitive lap times – and leading the race \u2018virtually\u2019 – with a strip of Rolex advertising hoarding stretched across one side of the nose of his Ferrari. His luck was that an impact with the barriers on cold tyres didn\u2019t damage the car and that the errant banner didn\u2019t interfere with the aerodynamics or cooling of the car.<\/p>\n His misfortune was that the word Rolex was facing inwards. Otherwise, I\u2019m sure he\u2019d already be well on the way to being signed up as an ambassador for the swanky watch brand!<\/p>\n The race at\u00a0Interlagos was close, very close. No fewer than 11 cars finished on the lead lap, admittedly on the shortest circuit on the WEC schedule. The gaps between the cars were paper thin, which has to be good news. It points to the Balance of Performance being closer than ever to achieving the goal of levelling things, to turning the race into a battle of execution on the track, in the pitroad and, as we are seeing, on the pitwall in the fertile minds of each team\u2019s engineering crew. \u00a0<\/p>\n A trend appears to have been set in the WEC this year. We can be sure there\u2019s more left field strategic thinking to come<\/p>\n It explains all the off-kilter tactics right now, but there was also some decent elbows-out racing around the\u00a0Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. Not least from Magnussen. His charge from fourth on the grid in the opening hour was also an important factor in BMW\u2019s second victory of the WEC season. It put the #15 entry in the pound seats when the #12 Caddy was delayed at its first pitstop. The subsequent charge by Stevens from 11th, after the opening pitstop cycle was complete, to third before the next one began was another highlight for me.<\/p>\n For all my joy at watching such an exciting race at Interlagos, the pace of the Cadillac suggests the BoP wasn\u2019t quite spot on. The Jota team should arguably have come away from Brazil with a 1-2, just as it did 12 months ago. That charge from Stevens provided evidence that the Caddy had the pace to win again, even with the 15-plus seconds the two cars lost in the pits. Ditto Jack Aitken in the sister #38 Jota car at the end of the race.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t to be because WRT rolled the dice once again. The Belgian team knew it had nothing to lose with a car languishing down the order and only a couple of places off the back of the Hypercar field. I\u2019m not sure the dice landed on double six for the team as it did at Spa, but luck was still on its side. Norman Nato<\/a>\u2019s spin in the Cadillac that put him behind van de Linde in hour three proved crucial in terms of the outcome. So a little bit of speculation once again paid WRT back in spades.<\/p>\n A trend appears to have been set in the WEC this year. We can be sure there\u2019s more left field strategic thinking to come and no one should complain about that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n Up next is Austin in September, will that also be decided by strategy?<\/p>\n Photo by: Andreas Beil<\/p>\n We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n![\"BMW](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784055610_184_15-bmw-m-team-wrt-bmw-m-hybrid.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Up](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784055611_782_start-action.jpg\")
<\/p>\n