AF Corse has announced that Robert Kubica will remain in its Hypercar team as part of an unchanged driver line-up for the 2026 World Endurance Championship.
The ex-Formula 1 driver will once again team up with Ye Yifei and Phil Hanson in the #85 Ferrari 499P, the privately-run satellite car campaigned by AF Corse.
This means all three Ferrari Hypercar entries will contest the 2026 WEC with the same drivers as last year, with the factory team having not made any changes to its two line-ups since it joined the top class in 2024. Reigning champions James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi will once again pilot the #51 499P, while Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen will again drive the sister #50 car.
Kubica stepped up to the WEC’s top class in 2024 with Ferrari’s satellite team after a title-winning LMP2 campaign with WRT the previous year.
He initially teamed up with Ye and Robert Shwartzman in the yellow-liveried Ferrari, before Shwartzman’s departure to IndyCar in 2025 opened up a spot for Hanson.
Together, the trio won the Le Mans 24 Hours outright in June last year, beating the #6 Porsche Penske 963 LMDh of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell to the top spot.
Although there were some question marks over whether Kubica will continue in the WEC after turning 41 in December, Tuesday’s announcement confirms that he will extend his tenure in the top echelon of sportscar racing by at least another year.
He will be the only non-factory driver in the #85 line-up, with both Ye and Hanson now having works status. Ye, who was previously affiliated with Renault and Porsche, became a works driver ahead of his first campaign with AF Corse in 2024, while Hanson joined its works roster at the start of this month.
Ferrari will head into 2026 after a dominant campaign last year, in which it won both the drivers’ and the manufacturers’ championship, as well as scoring an outright win at Le Mans.
The Prancing Horse has elected not to use any of its remaining evo jokers to update the car that has become the benchmark in WEC, although it has made several other changes to the car to improve its performance and reliability.
The 2026 WEC campaign begins in Qatar on 28 March and features the same eight rounds as last year.
