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McLaren Confirms WEC Hypercar Program for 2027
McLaren has confirmed a rumor that has swirled for years: The British manufacturer will return to the top class of the World Endurance Championship, in 2027. The series’ crown jewel is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, has made his ambitions clear: McLaren wants to win it.
Big name after big name is joining the WEC’s top class. At the end of January, Ford announced a Hypercar program for 2027, which will coincide with McLaren’s return. In September of last year, Korean giant Hyundai pitched its hat into the ring via its luxury brand, Genesis. Genesis Magma Racing is currently competing in the WEC’s spec prototype class, LMP2, as part of its “Year for Learning” and is expected to rascend to the Hypercar grid in 2026. Aston Martin will compete at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with the V-12-powered Valkyrie for the first time. The provisional entry list for the legendary French enduro includes Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche, and Toyota—heavyweight names, each one.
“With the rules that the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the World Endurance Championship, and IMSA have come up with, everyone has voted with their cars and look at the field—it’s amazing with all the manufacturers, the drivers, the competition,” Zak Brown told beIN Sports. “This is a very exciting time in endurance racing…”
By the rules of the series, McLaren has to campaign two cars. According to sportscar365.com, it will use the LMDh platform, which has proven popular for its relative affordability, incorporating a chassis built by Dallara. While you might expect the team to be called “McLaren Racing,” it’s more likely to be United Autosports, the team co-founded and co-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown. United Autosports currently fields the #59 and #95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evos in WEC’s GT class.
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There’s more, too. Brown doesn’t only want to win the WEC’s longest, hardest race in 2027—he wants to win Le Mans, the Monaco Grand Prix, and the Indianapolis 500, all in the same year. The last time McLaren won Le Mans overall was in 1995. McLaren hasn’t won the Monaco Grand Prix since 2008, with Lewis Hamilton, and it’s been far longer since it won at Indy—nearly 50 years. But last year, McLaren won the F1 manufacturer’s championship for the first time since 1998, defying everyone’s expectations for their 2024 season. In our coverage of the F1 season finale, we quoted from an open letter that Brown, an avid racer himself, sent to fans:
“Some people have referred to this as the biggest comeback in the history of Formula 1. I’ll leave that for others to debate, but I will say that I don’t think anyone in their right mind would have predicted us to win the Championship less than two years on from our start to 2023, when we were the ninth, maybe even 10th, fastest team on the grid.
“We’re trying to fly to the moon, and we don’t only want to go to the moon once. We want to win the Constructor’s Championships multiple times. We want to win the Driver’s Championship, and we want to win over and over again in every other form of motorsport we compete in. When we win once, we don’t stop, we dust ourselves down and get ready to win again.”
Brown has set a high bar for McLaren, and we’re excited—and hopeful—to see how its F1, IndyCar, and emerging WEC teams rise to the occasion.
The 30-year mark since McLaren’s last overall Le Mans win provides a nice historic occasion for announcing its return to the top class of endurance racing. Keep an eye out for more information closer to June 14, when the green flag drops for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. For McLaren’s sake, we hope fellow IndyCar competitor Roger Penske gets his Le Mans win in the next two years …
The WEC is an excellent race series with a great variety of manufacturers and real road courses. Too bad most of us can’t watch the races on free tv.
Many of the WEC races are broadcast on YouTube for free. They may not be the entire race, but the abridged versions capture the highlights.
It will be interesting to see where they go and how well with this program.