Relaunching from scratch: How RLL’s fresh start with McLaren presents both challenge and opportunity

Mick Schumacher isn’t the only big name joining Rahal Letterman Lanigan this year, as the team has replaced its outgoing BMW GTP program with a McLaren GTD PRO deal for IMSA.

BMW ultimately elected to have the team which runs its FIA World Endurance program, WRT, handle its business in IMSA too, which left a hole for RLL to fill for 2026. It's done that, with another automaker.

"We went from one marquee brand to another," says Ricardo Nault, RLL’s vice president of IMSA operations.

Sure, moving from GTP and overall event wins at some of endurance racing’s biggest events to fighting for class honors lower down the hierarchy could be perceived as a step down. And maybe it is. But there are more manufacturers in GTD PRO than there are in GTP, and the classes are extremely hotly contested.

Many people in GTD PRO will tell you its the most competitive championship of its kind in global motorsport. That might be a stretch, but the fact they’re willing to say it at least gives the argument some heft.

“There are real teams that we are competing against with great drivers – it's going to be a real challenge,” acknowledges Nault, who has been with Rahal since 1994. “This is not any kind of gimme by any long shot or any stretch of imagination.”

RLL found out at Le Mans in June that it wouldn’t be running with BMW in GTP next year, and while the team was always confident it would find a replacement program, I’m sure leaving it until November was not optimal. In fact, when the 720S GT3 Evo it will run next year arrived just under two weeks before last month’s Daytona test, the deal wasn’t even complete!

Of course, the test was a thrash. Not only is it dealing with a new car, but RLL has lost basically all its equipment which it “foolishly” sold off to BMW over the past few years and has basically had to build the team’s equipment from the ground up. Even the tent went, along with things like fuel rigs and timing stands.

So, it’s a proper fresh start.

Luckily, as recently as 2022 this team ran BMW GT3-spec cars in IMSA. So people like race engineer Eric Zeto and crew chief Anthony Noel were with the team then and have that experience of GT racing.

McLaren will send personnel to help with the software, electronics and generally assisting the running of the car, while RLL will take the lead on setup and race execution.

It’s a fresh start in more ways than just with infrastructure and equipment.

“I think it sounds odd, but working with BMW and manufacturers, with how much input they had into the team, really took away from the team itself, because too many decisions were dictated by BMW, and the team wasn't allowed to run things the way we felt was correct,” adds Nault. “So this will give us a chance to get back to proper racing and being in charge – more in charge of our own destiny and making decisions that we feel are necessary to win races.

“Will we do it right away? I struggle to think that's gonna be the case, considering how strong the competition is, but McLaren has a fairly mature car, so [we'll] see what our BoP is and go give it our best."

Last month's test was a start of the development race that faces precocious deadlines. Brandon Badraoui/Lumen via Getty Images

Asked what the team has learned about the car in the Daytona test, the answer from Nault was frank: “We haven't learned nearly enough! One test does not get you caught up with all the people who have been doing this for years, right?”

But there’s also a lot of optimism that McLaren has delivered a strong car, and that with a bit more honing, the results will come.

The driver line-up is certainly an area to get excited about given how quickly this project was put together. Juri Vips is an outstanding talent who was very close to becoming a Red Bull Formula 1 driver had his career gone slightly differently, and ought to have been given a proper IndyCar chance by now. Max Esterson was excellent in his sports car debut at Petit Le Mans last year in a Porsche 963 prototype, so there are extremely high hopes for him. And Dean MacDonald brings heaps of McLaren GT3 experience with him to the table.

The fourth driver for Daytona is a “stay tuned” situation. The team has a laundry list of drivers it is speaking to right now.

Could it be Schumacher, Graham Rahal or Louis Foster? Nault hasn’t ruled out any of the RLL IndyCar drivers taking the seat but says, “We have a lot of work to do on the IndyCar program. I want to try to, if we can, let them focus on that, but we'll see.”

Ideally, RLL would bring in someone who could be used in the future and someone with regular GT3/endurance experience. But the three IndyCar drivers would all be good enough to make an impact if required.

However that choice goes, drivers are not going to be an issue for RLL this year. It’s getting up to speed on short notice with no equipment, against some of the best-prepared and most competitive GT3 opposition in the world, that figures to be a stiff challenge, but it's one Nault and company are eager to face.