McLaren United AS ‘laser-focused’ on WEC for Hypercar program

At Le Mans today, McLaren Racing and United Autosports formally unveiled the next stages of its plans to go Hypercar racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship as McLaren United AS. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown (pictured above) took time to discuss further details about the program as it stands, with the world premiere of its new LMDh prototype on the horizon tomorrow, and the first on-track tests to take place in the first half of 2026.

• Barclay to lead McLaren United AS Hypercar program

Starting with why he chose the LMDh platform with a Dallara-supplied chassis and a V6 twin-turbo engine developed by McLaren in conjunction with ATM, Brown said, "We've got a great working relationship with Dallara, and we work with them in IndyCar.

"I like the LMDh platform. And also in the future, when we consider IMSA – I know now they're open-minded to LMH, but at the time, that was going to be an LMDh platform. And so, we wanted to be racing with a platform that gave us the flexibility to race around the world.

"At the end of the day, [Le Mans] is one of the biggest races in the world. We're a European racing team, and we want to be winning the Triple Crown again," he said.

A convergence of factors led to McLaren finally making a firm commitment to prototype sports car racing, including the sale of McLaren Automotive to CYVN Holdings, McLaren's impending exit from the Formula E creating a capacity for a new program, and the strength of its ongoing program in Formula 1 and IndyCar.

"When you kind of put that all together, the timing is good," Brown remarked. "We don't want to be in more than three racing series at any one time, so we are creating capacity.

"The other is the way you go about racing. The IndyCar team doesn't touch the Formula 1 team, and vice versa. Same thing with the WEC team. So everyone's very dedicated. A racing team sitting in Indianapolis doesn't pull on any resources," he stated, admitting that the biggest strain would be on the commercial side of the business.

"You don't want to bite off more than you can chew. So we feel comfortable that this isn't a commitment that is a stretch for us."

It's why McLaren's immediate plans to go racing at the sport's highest level do not include an immediate entry into IMSA, until 2028 at the very earliest.

"Right now, we're laser-focused on WEC. You wouldn't want to go into two championships at the same time," Brown said. "We really like IMSA; racing in North America is very important to us. We're moving to a new race shop in Indy, so it'll be something that we'll consider. We'd like to do it, but one step at a time."

"First, we'll need to decide when, and if. And then, you get into the how," he added.

However, if McLaren did decide to run in IMSA – whether in the Michelin Endurance Cup or the full WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – Brown confirmed, "Sitting here today, I don't see it not being a factory (program)."

Brown also said that there are no plans to run a customer car in the Hypercar class of the Asian Le Mans Series when it launches in 2026-27.

McLaren expects to pull from drivers within the McLaren Customer Racing and United Autosports families, as well as from McLaren's current single-seater efforts, and potential free agents from other manufacturers.

"As soon as we need racing drivers, we'll have racing drivers," Brown said with a smile.

As far as the potential impact on United Autosports' existing racing efforts, CEO Richard Dean confirmed that it will not be scaling back United's current commitments to WEC's LMGT3 class and to LMP2 racing in IMSA and the European Le Mans Series.

"It's a little too early to say, obviously, we're not racing here 'til '27. In '26, you're going to see exactly the same thing from United," Dean added.