McLaren to bid for Le Mans 24 Hours victory in 2027

McLaren will return to the Le Mans 24 Hours with a new hypercar programme in 2027, when it will take on Ferrari and Aston Martin in a bid to claim its first outright win in the event since 1995.

The much-rumoured return to the endurance classic was confirmed by the Formula 1 squad with a preview video showing a hypercar outline on Instagram and tagging in both the Le Mans organisers and the FIA World Endurance Championship with the message “see you on track in 2027”. 

In a brief statement, McLaren Racing said: “1995. Legendary Le Mans victory. Triple Crown glory. Ready to make our mark on the world endurance stage once again. Hypercar. 2027 World Endurance Championship.”

It is understood that McLaren Racing – which is separate to the Automotive division that recently merged with Forseven – will enter the hypercar class under the cost-controlled LMDh rules, which require teams to use one of a number of customer chassis and a spec hybrid system. Entrants supply their own combustion engine and a natural choice for McLaren would be the twin-turbo V6 used in both the road and track versions of the Artura. Total output is capped at 670bhp. 

McLaren took a shock victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours at its first attempt in 1995, when a GT1-class McLaren F1 GTR driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya and run by the British Lanzante squad (but entered as Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing) triumphed in torrential conditions. McLaren F1 GTRs filled four of the first five positions.

That result was technically a customer entry, with the race version of the seminal McLaren F1 developed only after requests from potential buyers. Customer McLarens continued to appear on the grid until 1998. Since then, the firm has regularly developed various GT racing cars, but these have been done by the firm’s Automotive division and used for customer racing. The marque returned to Le Mans this year with the 720S GT3 Eco in the LMGT3 class.

McLaren Racing has steadily expanded its motorsport activities beyond F1 in recent years and now runs teams in the Indycar Series, Formula E and Extreme E.

McLaren will become the 11th manufacturer to contest the WEC’s hypercar division. There are currently eight marques on the grid, split between the LMDh and Le Mans Hypcercar classes, with Genesis due to enter next year and Ford joining in 2027.

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James is Autocar’s associate editor, and has more than 20 years of experience of working in automotive and motorsport journalism. He has been in his current role since September 2024, and helps lead Autocar's features and new sections, while regularly interviewing some of the biggest names in the industry. Oh, and he once helped make Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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