Henri Dubois · Endurance Correspondent
The two-time Le Mans winner is ending his professional racing career at season's end, but will fight for the WEC drivers' championship until the very last lap.
At 43 years old and with Toyota since 2014, Mike Conway has announced that he will retire from professional racing after the 2026 WEC season. The British driver made the announcement on October 6, just under two weeks before the penultimate round in Barcelona. His career has taken him through setbacks and injuries to two WEC titles and two overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Farewell with Family in Mind
Conway spoke in his statement of an “incredible journey that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.” Toyota, where he competed for 13 seasons, is “truly a place I can call home.” He cited family as the reason for his decision: “Now it's time to step back and enjoy life with my family away from the track.”
Conway says he made the decision after his second Le Mans victory in June. According to Autosport, however, Toyota reportedly decided not to renew his contract before the 24-hour race.
From Setback to Second Le Mans Triumph
Conway's path to this point was not a straight line. After injuries and setbacks earlier in his career, he found at Toyota the consistency that distinguishes an endurance driver over a full season, and in 2026 he crowned this second phase with another overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Together with Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, he brought the Toyota TR010 Hybrid number 7 across the finish line first after 24 hours, his second Le Mans triumph after 2021.
The overall record reads accordingly: two WEC drivers' titles in 2019/20 and 2021, two overall Le Mans victories, and exactly 20 WEC race wins since his move to Toyota in 2014. Before his endurance racing career, Conway had already made a name for himself in single-seaters as British Formula 3 champion in 2006, winner of the Macau Grand Prix, and with stints in GP2 and IndyCar where he claimed four victories. It is a career spanning multiple disciplines before ultimately settling into endurance racing.
One Last Title Fight and the Question of Succession
This is no quiet exit, for Conway enters the remaining races not as a gradual wind-down but as a continuation of an ongoing championship battle. Together with Kobayashi and de Vries, he will fight for the drivers' world championship in the final two WEC rounds. Heading into Barcelona on October 18, the trio sits second in the drivers' standings, 10 points behind the sister car number 8. Given that endurance races are rarely decided by a single moment, this fight could easily extend into the final stages of the season.
Toyota has not yet announced a successor. According to Autosport, Kevin Estre is expected to take his place in 2027, on loan from Porsche. For the team, this is more than a personnel change, as Conway has been one of the most consistent drivers in the WEC's top class for over a decade. For the weeks ahead, one thing takes priority: attempting to finish his career with a title rather than simply a victory lap.
