McLaren Racing has announced the name of the car with which it will return to the highest level of international endurance racing next year, as McLaren Hypercar Team prepares to enter the FIA World Endurance Championship with a pair of MCL-HY prototypes.
The legendary British brand will rejoin the long-distance discipline’s top-tier next season for the first time in almost three decades, as it bids to add to its celebrated 1995 victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and fight for overall World Championship honours.
The MCL-HY adopts McLaren Racing’s established Formula 1 naming convention, combining the ‘MCL’ prefix with the Hypercar designation ‘HY’ – thereby reinforcing the marque’s unified identity across the uppermost echelons of the sport and signalling its commitment to FIA WEC’s burgeoning headline class. The MCL-HY’s test livery will be unveiled on 4 May, ahead of its maiden rollout on-track.
“Taking the McLaren name back to the pinnacle of sportscar racing is a huge milestone,” acknowledged McLaren Endurance Racing Executive Director, James Barclay. “It’s a proud time for everyone within McLaren Racing and McLaren Automotive to share the name of our new Hypercar, which follows in the footsteps of an incredible lineage of McLaren racing cars.
“We are in a golden era of sportscar racing, and the Hypercar category continues to be extremely successful – our new car name shows respect to that.”
Alongside its commitment to FIA WEC, McLaren has revealed a unique track car variant – the MCL-HY GTR, developed in conjunction with McLaren Automotive and whose name pays tribute to the iconic model that triumphed on its debut at La Sarthe 31 years ago. The MCL-HY GTR will be supported by track day programme ‘Project: Endurance’, providing exclusive access to the team’s return to endurance racing’s elite.
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