United Autosports to run McLaren Hypercar programme, Dallara tie-up agreed

McLaren’s factory entry into the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar division will be run by United Autosports.

The British team will field a pair of the marque’s forthcoming LMDh hybrid prototypes under the McLaren United AS banner in the WEC from 2027.

The confirmation of United’s graduation to the Hypercar ranks of the WEC after sustained success in the LMP2 prototype division and a link-up with McLaren in the championship’s LMGT3 class was one of a number of announcements made by the British organisation on Friday at Le Mans ahead of this year’s 24 Hours.

The fleshing out of McLaren’s plans for its return to top-flight sportscar racing, which was confirmed in a perfunctory social media statement in April, came on the 30th anniversary of its 1995 Le Mans victory with the F1 GTR run by the Kokusai Kaihatsu team and driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya.

McLaren will partner with Italian constructor Dallara in the development of its LMDh, while the engine will be a twin-turbo V6.

The team principal of the McLaren Racing Hypercar operation will be James Barclay, who will move over from the same role at the Jaguar Formula E squad in September.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, who co-founded United with Richard Dean, told Autosport: “United’s track record speaks for itself”.

He stressed that McLaren “did take a look at a couple of other teams”, but pointed out that his ongoing involvement in the team will be of benefit.

“It gives me comfort in terms of the working relationship and having the ability to make decisions in the best interests of McLaren easily,” he explained.

United has never made any secret of its Hypercar aspirations and was in talks with Porsche about running the WEC team and also Bentley when it examined the LMDh formula.

Dean explained that United has been preparing for the graduation to Hypercar for some time.

“It wasn’t so much as throwing our hat in the ring as presenting ourselves in term of results and structure to show we can do it,” said Dean, whose team has fielded a pair of McLaren 720S GT3 Evos in the WEC since 2024.

#22 United Autosports Oreca 07 – Gibson: Renger Van Der Zande, Pietro Fittipaldi, David Heinemeier Hansson

Photo by: Marc Fleury

“If success means we are ready, we are obviously ready – the past 12 months we’ve won both Le Mans and the Daytona 24 Hours in our category, but we know it is not just about the results.

“We put up a 62,000sq ft facility in 2019 and in 2022 we recruited Jakob Andreasen from Toyota as technical director.

“The idea was that if anyone did a detailed investigation of the team they would see that these guys are Hypercar-ready.”

Brown explained that Dallara “ticked a few more boxes” than the other constructors who produce a chassis spine around which an LMDh can be developed.

He pointed to the existing relationship with Dallara from the IndyCar Series in which McLaren competes under the Arrow McLaren banner.

The decision to go with a twin-turbocharged V6 was “performance driven” rather than a marketing one, given the latest McLaren road car road engine is a turbo V6, Brown explained.

The internal combustion element of the hybrid powertrain will be developed in conjunction with a partner that has yet to be named.

Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

The McLaren LMDh is scheduled to be up and running at the end of the first quarter of 2026 with an intensive test and development schedule kicking off at the start of the following quarter.

Brown stressed that no decision has been made on whether McLaren will expand its LMDh programme into the IMSA SportsCar Championship in year two or beyond.

“We have interest in IMSA, but one step at a time,” he said.

“It’s a great championship and the questions are, do we run two cars, one car, just do Daytona?

“That is something that is under review.”