What we know — and what we don't — about McLaren's Hypercar

McLaren have finally announced their Hypercar programme. What a surprise, eh?

With three new manufacturers joining WEC in two years, it's going to be a busy time for the series. Here's what we know, and what we don't, about the new programme.

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The details

McLaren, of Formula 1 and Indycar fame (plus other series) will enter the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2027, with a Hypercar.

We know they'll enter with a car that uses the LMDh ruleset. This is similar to the majority of other WEC Hypercar manufacturers — namely Cadillac, Porsche, Alpine, and BMW in the 2025 season. They'll be joined by Genesis 2026, and Ford in 2027.

Chassis

We don't officially know what the LMDh car's chassis spine will be. However, reports indicate that the British manufacturer has chosen Dallara as its partner, with the Italian motorsport company currently developing the car in conjunction with McLaren.

This would make McLaren the third manufacturer to use Dallara's chassis as the basis for an LMDh car, joining Cadillac and BMW.

Will the car look similar to these two? At this point, it's hard to say. As we noted in our Hyundai/Genesis announcement, LMDh cars that use the same chassis spine don't have to look the same.

In fact, in that article, we used the example of Cadillac's Dallara-based V-Series.R, and BMW's M Hybrid V8, as an example. These do not look very similar at all, yet they are both underpinned by the same chassis.

The McLaren, Cadillac and BMW don't appear to look too similar either, which is good, past the 'generic modern prototype sportscar' look. But we'll have to see what it actually looks like when it hits the track.

Engine

McLaren's choice of engine appears to come down to three different options. It could use the V8 from its successful GT3 car, the 720S Evo, which also competes in WEC.

It could also use the Judd V10 from the Solus GT road-going hypercar. Or it could use the V6 twin-turbo engine from the Artura.

The V8 or V6 seem the most likely from a fit point of view. For what it's worth, BMW use a twin turbo charged V8, while Cadillac use a naturally aspirated V8 (that sound 🤤). But OE founder Tim thinks he hears a V10 engine in the 16-second teaser, so who knows...

On track programme

United Autosports, co-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown, runs McLaren's LMGT3 programme in WEC.

It therefore isn't too much of a stretch to imagine the Yorkshire-based team running McLaren's Hypercar programme too.

But, we simply don't know at this point.

Drivers

Once again, a bit ol' "we don't know".

With so many manufacturers either in Hypercar already or entering in the next couple of years, finding drivers for a Hypercar programme is getting harder and harder.

McLaren's driver development programme has a number of drivers in it, but they are all fairly young with no real sportscar or top flight series experience, with the exception of the Indycar team's Pato O'Ward.

Could we see him in the sportscar, maybe as a one-off at Le Mans? Who knows at this point. The same for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri from the F1 team.

I do think, though — and this is just personal opinion — with other drivers being snapped up, that they'll have two drivers per car. That's the same as Aston Martin have done with the Valkyrie programme this year, and the model Porsche have used for both IMSA and WEC. Both then add a third driver for the longer rounds in each series.

Will more manufacturers, existing and yet to join, pick up this model? It remains to be seen, but does come with considerable benefits.

When will we know more?

Only Endurance has heard on the grapevine that more details are expected to be released at Le Mans, via a press conference the day before the race. We'll be there in force so will get as much info as we can to share with you.

Exciting times for WEC!