Goodyear Reverts to Medium Tire for All Races in 2026

Photo: Javier Jimenez/DPPI

Goodyear has taken the decision to revert to its Medium compound tire for the full 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season, shelving its Eagle Hard product.

The Eagle Hard was introduced to the LMGT3 class last year and was nominated by Goodyear for three tracks deemed to have high tire degradation, Sao Paulo, the Circuit of The Americas and Bahrain, with the Medium being the tire of choice elsewhere.

However, amid speculation that the Hard tire was poised to be ditched, Goodyear has now clarified the Eagle Medium will be used at all events next year.

It comes hand in hand with a change to the draft 2026 WEC sporting regulations increasing the number of tires LMGT3 teams can use in each race.

In the European Le Mans Series, LMGT3 runners will use the Eagle Hard for the opening round at Barcelona before the Medium returns for the remainder of the year.

A statement supplied to Sportscar365 read: “For the 2026 WEC and ELMS seasons, Goodyear will exclusively utilize the Goodyear Eagle Medium compound across all events.

“The only exception will be the ELMS Prologue and the opening round in Barcelona — recognized as the most aggressive circuit on the calendar — where the Goodyear Eagle Hard compound has been nominated.

“This approach reflects insights gained over the first two years of LMGT3 competition, making the Eagle Medium the preferred choice for all other rounds.

“Goodyear is already working on an all-new range of Eagle products for 2027.”

Earlier in the year, Goodyear’s head of endurance racing Mike McGregor revealed track testing would begin early next year for the 2027 LMGT3 range.

LMGT3 Teams React to Increased Tire Allocation

The draft 2026 WEC sporting regulations published in October state that LMGT3 teams will be able to use 24 tires over a regular six-hour race, up from 16, 32 tires for an eight-hour race (up from 26) and 40 tires for a 10-hour race (up from 32).

In essence, it means teams will be able to equip a new set of four tires at each pit stop in a race, with no need to double stint tires.

Additionally, the allocation for free practice has increase from 12 to 16 tires.

Iron Lynx team principal Andrea Piccini indicated the Mercedes-AMG squad did not favor the decision to increase the allocation, but believes strategy will still play a role

“We are aware and I think most of the teams were against it,” Piccini told Sportscar365. “Nevertheless, they took the decision to go this way.

“It’s an increase of cost, which honestly we would have preferred not to have. That’s the decision that has been taken and we will do the best out of it.

“You can play quite a lot with strategies. Still, a tire change is about 11, 12, 13 [seconds], it depends how good you are. In certain races it might still be good to not change the tires, use it as a strategy to uncut other cars.

“Sometimes [if] you cannot pass you can decide not to change the tires because you have good wear and then you play on track.

“I think there’s still space for strategy. Of course, it reduces this window because having more tires usually is better to change the tires and push for [pace]. We’ll see.”

Heart of Racing team principal Ian James expressed his disappointment with the decision and stated he feels double stinting will likely be a thing of the past at races outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which has a separate tire allocation.

“From a commercial side and a sustainability side it’s disappointing because I thought we were trying to move in a direction where we didn’t do that,” he told Sportscar365.

“I could see from a sporting side why some people have been pushing it but I liked that it added an extra element of strategy to races. I’m disappointed on two fronts, really.

“I think it will always be single stinting. Maybe Le Mans will be the exception. But everywhere else, there will always be single stints.”

On the other hand, Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo believes strategic opportunities will still exist with the increased tire allocation.

“Let’s assume someone does not change tires and can still extract performance in the second stint, and saves the time of the tire change,” said Cannizzo. “We gain 15 seconds or whatever. This is something you can consider, or one stint and a half on the same tires.

“I don’t think it will reduce too much the strategic possibilities. It will change the way we approach strategy, but not limit them too much.”

John Dagys contributed to this report

Source: Sports Car 365