EPIROC ENDURANCE 1H · Finale Race⏱ 1h11

The 70-minute endurance final at GP Kart Concept in Landes le Gaulois (Planning Location, 1,090 m) on 23 October 2026 brought together 8 teams for a demanding race decided as much by strategic thinking as by raw pace.

McLaren (kart #24) took the chequered flag after 41 laps, crossing the line 6.816 seconds ahead of Mercedes (kart #22), who also completed 41 laps. Ferrari (kart #9) rounded out the podium, 57.246 seconds behind the winner. Alpine (kart #25) finished fourth, one lap down, while Cadillac (kart #86) and Red Bull (kart #10) shared fifth and sixth on 39 laps, separated only by classification order. Aston Martin (kart #23) came home seventh on 38 laps, and Audi (kart #5) completed 29 laps to finish eighth.

The fastest lap of the race was set by Mercedes in 1:15.843 — a benchmark that illustrates just how much raw speed the silver kart carried throughout the evening.

Indeed, the data analysis reveals a striking contrast at the top. Mercedes posted the best pure pace of the field, with a median race rhythm of 1:22.069 and the lowest consistency standard deviation (2.56 s) among all eight teams — making them both the quickest and the most regular outfit on track. Yet it was McLaren who converted that rivalry into a victory, leveraging 3 pit stops against Mercedes' 3, and extracting maximum lap count from a median race rhythm of 1:23.148 — second-best pure pace on the grid.

Looking at McLaren's stint breakdown, the team delivered a strong opening relay (13 laps, median 1:23.359, stable tendency) before slowing by 0.22 s/lap across a 9-lap second stint. The third stint was the tactical highlight: 9 laps at a median of 1:19.762, accelerating at 0.44 s/lap, pushing the kart to the front. The final stint saw pace drop at 0.75 s/lap over 7 laps — the heaviest degradation of any stint in the data — but the gap was already banked.

Mercedes, meanwhile, produced their finest work in the second relay: 10 laps at a median of 1:18.538, accelerating at 0.49 s/lap and producing the race's absolute fastest lap of 1:15.843. However, the third stint showed a clear degradation of 0.75 s/lap over 8 laps, which cost them dearly in the final phase.

Ferrari ran a clean three-stop race, improving their rhythm progressively through relays two and three (medians of 1:22.613 and 1:22.351 respectively), securing the final podium position. Alpine were notable for a strong recovery arc across four stints, finishing their race with a remarkably consistent 10-lap final relay (median 1:21.994, σ 0.79 s) — the most regular stint of any team in the data. Red Bull showed a steady improvement trend across all four stints despite a lower starting pace, finishing with a very consistent final relay (σ 0.57 s). Cadillac required 4 pit stops against the 3 made by most rivals, which added time loss in the pits. Audi, with 5 pit stops and only 29 laps completed, endured a difficult afternoon, recording the weakest median rhythm (1:37.228) and lowest consistency (σ 4.06 s) of the field.

Key takeaways for teams: At GP Kart Concept, pure pace alone does not guarantee victory — Mercedes was fastest on every meaningful metric yet finished second. Stint management and minimising late-relay degradation proved decisive: McLaren absorbed a heavy final-stint slowdown precisely because they had built enough margin in the third relay. Consistency (low σ) in the final stints, as demonstrated by Alpine and Red Bull, is also a critical lever for preserving position when the race tightens in the closing minutes.