The winding road that brought McLaren back to Le Mans

McLaren is back at the Le Mans 24 Hours, 29 years after the F1 GTR’s first-time-out, against-the-odds victory in 1995 – and 26 since a car bearing its name took part in the great race. Yet probably more significant are the 13 years since its sportscars started racing again in the international GT arena in 2011.

It’s taken a long time for one of the most famous names in motor racing to once again grace the grid for the French enduro. The absence finally ends with a trio of 720S GT3 Evos entered in the new-for-2024 LMGT3 class this year.

McLaren relaunched as a maker of road-going sportscars in 2009. Deliveries of the first fruit of what had become McLaren Automotive – as opposed to McLaren Cars in the days of the F1 – kicked off in 2011, the same year that the MP4-12C hit the track in a short schedule of races ahead of its full release the following season. The MP4-12C racer and its successors were built to the GT3 regulations, and it has taken until 2024 for the door to be opened to machinery from that class at Le Mans after a two-year phase-out of GTE. 

It was perfect timing for McLaren. It had brought out an updated or evo version of the 720S GT3 at the start of 2023, and also launched the new McLaren Trophy one-make series for its Artura and 570S GT4-spec racers last year. Then its attention turned to Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship. 

“The timing was right,” says Michael McDonagh, director of McLaren Special Operations and Motorsport. “I think the stars did align. When GT3 was allowed in, it was the perfect opportunity.”

McDonagh suggests that McLaren should be racing at Le Mans and in the wider WEC against its competitors in the marketplace, the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. Its “peer group” is his description.

McLaren returned to the GT market with the MP4-12C, pictured at the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2014, but it never had an eligible car for the previous GTE regs

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

“Le Mans is very important to us,” he says. “It was the last piece in the jigsaw that gave us the triple crown [of wins at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the French enduro] so it is special to go back there.”

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Much has been written about McLaren’s so far unfulfilled ambitions in the Hypercar class, but the desire to return to Le Mans has long since been there, before and after its GT3 and GT4 programmes were brought in-house in 2017. The first two McLaren GT3 racers, the 12C and the 650S, were developed independently under licence by Andrew Kirkaldy’s CRS Racing squad, which spawned the Garage 59 team.

It had a look at GTE early in the 12C programme when the FIA announced in 2012 that it would be merging the class with GT3. An engine development programme was started at Ilmor, though one that never reached the test bench before the FIA dropped its plan. There was also a 650S GTE project that never made it off the drawing board.

McDonagh stresses that the marque doesn’t have a “God-given right to be there”, despite its history at the race and its long involvement in GT3

The McLaren Senna was conceived as a both a trackday car and a GTE racer. That was plain to see when the car was unveiled at the Geneva motor show early in 2018: the car incorporated the ‘leader’ lights, which show when a car is running in the top three in class. McLaren has never talked publicly about its original aspirations for the Senna.

Finally, McLaren is back at Le Mans, with the GT3 Evos. That’s how the manufacturer refers to the car now that it’s launched the 750S, a kind of facelift-plus 720S. Two are fielded by United Autosports, which is contesting the full WEC, and one from the IMSA SportsCar Championship run by Optimum Motorsport under the Inception Racing banner.

McDonagh stresses that the marque doesn’t have a “God-given right to be there”, despite its history at the race and its long involvement in GT3. The comment is a nod to the process McLaren had to go through to join the WEC grid.

McLaren found itself down the pecking order when it came to gaining an entry into the WEC. Le Mans organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, which runs the WEC with the FIA, made it clear that those manufacturers involved in the Hypercar class of the series would be given priority. 

McLaren F1 GTRs scored a famous 1-3-4-5 in 1995 on the marque's Le Mans debut

Photo by: William Murenbeeld / Motorsport Images

That meant Ferrari, Porsche, BMW and Lamborghini, as well as Toyota and Cadillac sister marques Lexus and Chevrolet, had first dibs on what were to be two-car entries. Next up were long-time WEC participants Aston Martin and Ford, which was allowed to take the wraps off its new-for-2024 Mustang GT3 at Le Mans last year.

It was unclear a year ago whether there would be space for another manufacturer. If there was, it appeared that McLaren was one of three candidates along with Mercedes and Audi. McDonagh and his colleagues met with the ACO at Le Mans last year to make their case.

“We laid out our intentions, that it wouldn’t be a one-off,” he says. “We made it clear that McLaren was intending to come back and to come back for good.”

There was still a lot of work to be done; McLaren wouldn’t find out whether its pitch had been successful until the same time, more or less, as the rest of the world on the publication of the 2024 WEC entry list right at the end of November. McLaren made its entry having announced at the start of the previous month that United Autosports would be its WEC partner.

It was a significant move given the Anglo-American squad’s long and successful involvement in the LMP2 class of the series: it won the P2 title in 2019-20, and took category honours at Le Mans in the second of those years. The Leeds-based team had been set to disappear from the WEC along with the secondary prototype class. It had announced in June that the P2 WEC team would be switching over to the IMSA SportsCar Championship, but had never hid its aspirations to say involved in WEC, neither publicly nor in its dialogue with the ACO.

“We have a long history with the ACO in the WEC and the European and Asian Le Mans Series: we have won the ELMS, WEC and Le Mans and have been ever-present at the 24 Hours since 2017,” says United boss Richard Dean. “I like to think we played a part in swinging the decision in McLaren’s favour.”

United was one of four teams that pitched for the right to run the WEC McLarens. They have never been confirmed by the manufacturer, but it can be revealed that the other three were Optimum, the Garage 59 squad that takes its name from the race number of the Le Mans-winning Kokusai Kaihatsu F1 GTR, and longtime Porsche entrant Project 1, which subsequently closed its doors over the winter. 

The demise of LMP2 in the WEC meant United Autosports needed an LMGT3 partner to remain in the championship

Photo by: Paolo Belletti

McDonagh is insistent that Zak Brown, boss of McLaren Racing and also the co-owner of United, played no part in its decision. Both he and Dean point out the distinction between McLaren Automotive and McLaren Racing, which encompasses the Formula 1, Formula E and IndyCar teams.

“Zak wasn’t even part of the discussions,” says McDonagh. “We met with each individual team and we had internal criteria of how we would measure those teams and how they would work with McLaren, and United Autosports regardless of Zak came out on top. We selected them on their capabilities.”

With confirmation of a potential entry only set to come out in late November, and the first round of the 2024 WEC in Qatar on the first weekend of March, McLaren and United had no choice but to start working on the project in anticipation of gaining entries.

"We had those parts running on our development car in October. We had to commit before we had the entries in place" 
Malcolm Gerrish

For McLaren that meant adapting the 720S to the differences between the LMGT3 and pure FIA GT3 rulesets, and for United recruiting staff – personnel from the P2 WEC team having largely moved over to run its cars in IMSA – and putting its budget and driver line-ups in place. 

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When McLaren joined the relevant technical working groups during the second quarter of last year, the idea of LMGT3 running what the ACO had dubbed “premium kits” – bodywork revisions to distinguish them from regular GT3 cars – was still on the table. That option quickly disappeared, but the rules for the WEC and its associate series lay down a different and slightly smaller aerodynamic window to FIA GT3. More significant was incorporating the mandatory driveshaft torque sensors that control power output in LMGT3. 

“We had those parts running on our development car in October,” says McLaren Motorsport chief engineer Malcolm Gerrish. “We had to commit before we had the entries in place. The clever bit is what is behind the sensors, how we integrate them with all the systems on the car. It is not the work of a moment. There was a commitment from McLaren that we had to do it properly.”

Dean reckons United had to “get creative” in piecing together its budget and driver line-up. There are no stars from the McLaren factory roster on its squad, nor the support that comes with the loan of a driver for the pro slot in a pro-am LMGT3 crew. Each of the other eight manufacturers racing in the class in WEC has placed at least one contracted driver with its team.

It was far from certain that McLaren would make the cut for an entry into the WEC that would secure it a return to Le Mans

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

“There’s no doubt some of the other manufacturers have bigger chequebooks,” says McDonagh. 

Nicolas Costa, the silver-rated driver in the #59 entry, came into United’s focus on the recommendation of ex-Formula 1 driver Taki Inoue. He’d seen the Brazilian race with his old mate Vincenzo Sospiri’s sportscar team and reckoned he would be ideal for one of United’s silver seats. The team gave him a try-out at Estoril before Christmas. He impressed and then, says Dean, “it was a case of working with him and his sponsors to make it happen”.

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“It took a lot of work to get here, but I’m happy with the line-ups we’ve ended up with,” continues Dean. “I reckon we can match anyone out there in terms of our professionals, silvers and bronzes.”

Did you know?

The F1 GTR wasn’t the first McLaren to venture out on the hallowed asphalt of the Circuit de la Sarthe during Le Mans week. But 1995 was the race debut for the marque in the 24 Hours because the only previous attempt on the race by one of its cars ended in non-qualification by a massive margin.

The car that attempted to make the cut in 1981 was a McLaren, though most definitely a ‘bitza’ special. It was dubbed an M6 GT after the stillborn road car project that was canned following company founder Bruce McLaren’s death in 1970 and did have the correct bodywork. But it was built around a monocoque from an M12 Can-Am Group 7 racer – a car borne of the M6 – that had been raced by John Surtees among others and powered by a 5.7-litre Chevrolet engine. 

Put together by Z&W Enterprises for Canadian racer Paul Canary, the car didn’t distinguish itself on track with drivers Herve Regout and Michel Elkoubi. It failed to break five minutes, more than 90 seconds off the pole, and failed to qualify.

The very first appearance for a McLaren at Le Mans in 1981 was not one to remember

Photo by: LAT Photographic

The F1 GTR’s surprise last hurrah

Everyone remembers McLaren’s winning debut at Le Mans in 1995, but a run of top-six results continued as the F1 race project wound down. Two long-tail McLaren F1 GTRs were on the entry for the 24 Hours in 1998, and one of them came away with fourth place in a year of massive manufacturer involvement. It was almost as much of a shock as the outright victory three years before.

The BMW-engined McLaren wasn’t close to the pace of the new breed of GT1 machinery from Toyota, Porsche and Mercedes, nor the fastest of the open-top LMP prototypes – the two McLarens in the race qualified 15 seconds off pole. More to the point, the privateer McLaren that came home in among the factories had a 57-year-old amateur among its drivers. 

Steve O’Rourke, the manager of Pink Floyd who was an enthusiastic sportscar driver and entrant, had bought one of the 1997-spec F1 GTRs raced by the BMW factory Schnitzer team the previous year to field at both Le Mans and in the British GT Championship with the GTC Competition squad. Regular driving partner Tim Sugden and BMW-contracted Bill Auberlen, whose deal with the team included the loan of a fresh six-litre V12 from his employer, were his team-mates. 

"At the end one of the Nissan R390s was trying to catch us, but we were able to maintain a gap. I think they’d pretty much given up by the end"
Tim Sugden

They would end up driving more than 22 of the 24 hours between them. O’Rourke started the race, rattled down the barriers on the exit of Indianapolis, taking off a mirror, and only got back in for a further stint on Sunday morning. Legend has it that late on when a strong result looked on, he sidled up to team manager Michael Cane to ask if he could have another go. The reply was reputedly short and sweet: “Do you want to finish fourth?”

O’Rourke’s early misdemeanour apart, the McLaren had a near-faultess race – it spent less time in the pits than any other car. And it was much nearer to the pace in race conditions than qualifying, recalls Sugden.

“The factory cars didn’t go anything like as fast as in qualifying, but we were able to do very similar times,” says the Brit. “I remember at the end one of the Nissan R390s was trying to catch us, but we were able to maintain a gap. I think they’d pretty much given up by the end.”

There was one final twist, however. The GTC McLaren with Sugden at the wheel wouldn’t restart at its final stop. The battery had gone flat, but as quick as a flash it was replaced by the chief mechanic. 

“He told me afterwards for a reason that he couldn’t explain that he’d gone and got a spare battery and the tools to fit it just before the final stop,” says Sugden. “It was kind of serendipitous.”

O'Rourke's car finished fourth in 1998 after hard charging from Sugden and Auberlen

Photo by: LAT Photographic