Vandoorne to leave Peugeot in WEC after Fuji

Peugeot has announced that Stoffel Vandoorne will leave its Hypercar squad in the World Endurance Championship at the end of this weekend’s Fuji 6 Hours.

The former Formula 1 driver was already set to depart the outfit at the end of the season to focus on his expected Formula E programme with Jaguar, but his exit has now been brought forward by the team.

This is not the first time Peugeot and Vandoorne have announced such a split. Just over 12 months ago, Peugeot revealed that Vandoorne will be stepping down from his Peugeot seat on an immediate basis, only for him to return in 2026 after his mooted move to newcomer Genesis failed to come to fruition. He only ended up missing last year’s Bahrain finale.

This time, however, Vandoorne’s departure from Peugeot is concrete, with the Belgian understood to have agreed a deal with Jaguar to replace Opel-bound Mitch Evans. An announcement is expected in the coming weeks, marking his return to the all-electric championship after a one-year hiatus.

At Jaguar, he will team up with Antonio Felix da Costa, who may also not take part in the final two WEC events of 2026. The Portuguese returned to Hypercar this year with Alpine, but was benched for this weekend’s Fuji round as the Renault brand elected to switch to two-driver line-ups. On Friday, team principal Philippe Sinault insisted that da Costa could still return at Barcelona and Monza, but he did not rule out fielding two-driver crews again. 

Vandoorne’s departure comes at a time when Formula E drivers are preparing for the start of the new Gen4 era, with the pre-season Jarama test scheduled on 16-20 November, just a week after the WEC finale in Italy.

Vandoorne first joined Peugeot in 2023, incidentally at Fuji, as a substitute for Nico Mueller, who was ruled out of the race due to a collarbone injury.

He moved into a full-time role the following year and has since completed 18 races for the Paris-based squad. A third-place result at Austin last year marks his best result in Hypercar.

While Vandoorne has previously combined a Formula E programme with WEC, he is not expected to remain in Hypercar with a different brand next year.

Peugeot is yet to name a replacement for Vandoorne for the final two rounds of the season, but it is expected to provide race mileage to either new-for-2027 signing Robert Shwartzman or reserve driver Alex Quinn. Like Shwartzman, Quinn is set to step up to a race seat next year as part of a wider shake-up of the team’s line-up.

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– The Autosport.com Team