McLaren will chase overall victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time in nearly 30 years as part of a World Endurance Championship campaign in 2027.
In a brief statement on Thursday, the British sportscar manufacturer confirmed an attempt to reprise the Le Mans win with the McLaren F1 GTR 30 years ago.
“1995. Legendary Le Mans victory. Triple Crown glory,” it read.
“Ready to make our mark on the world endurance stage once again.
“Hypercar. 2027 World Endurance Championship.
“Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing said: ‘We’re Back.’”
There were no further details of the Hypercar class programme, which is known to be already under way. But it is known that McLaren will join Hypercar with an LMDh prototype.
It is believed that McLaren has partnered with Italian constructor Dallara, which has also co-developed the Cadillac V-Series.R and BMW M Hybrid V8.
The engine is expected to be based on the architecture of the 120-degree twin-turbo V6 already in use in both road and race versions of the Artura introduced in 2022.
McLaren’s return to the top flight of endurance racing in 2027 follows 30 years after its on-debut win with the F1 GTR.
It retained a presence on the Le Mans grid until 1998, finishing fourth in 1996, and then second and fourth again with the long-tail variant of the car in 1997 and 1998 respectively.
The marque returned to Le Mans in 2024 on the introduction of the LMGT3 class in the WEC with the 720S GT3 Evo.
McLaren will become the 11th manufacturer in the WEC’s Hypercar division. The eight OEMs on the grid this season will be joined by Hyundai brand Genesis next year and also Ford in 2027.
Acura and Lamborghini are also competing with LMDh machinery in the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s GTP class.
McLaren has long declared its interest in returning to the pinnacle of sportscar racing, with Brown dropping hints that confirmation of a prototype programme in Hypercar was close to sign-off over the past year.
Being questioned about a prototype programme at Le Mans last year, he said it was a case of “more when than if”.
At this season’s February WEC opener in Qatar, he dropped further hints that an announcement was imminent when talking about the 30th anniversary celebrations of its Le Mans win it has planned for this year’s race in June.
“We will have a nice display there in the Le Mans museum and hopefully we will have some exciting stuff to talk about,” he said.
The Kokusai Kaihatsu McLaren F1 GTR driven to victory at Le Mans in 1995 by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya is already on display at the Le Mans museum on a six-month loan.
