James Barclay prepares McLaren MCL-HY Hypercar for Le Mans debut: "You can't leave anything on the table"

McLaren’s MCL-HY is one of the most anticipated arrivals in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2027, and team principal James Barclay says the programme is right on plan after six tests. The project extends McLaren’s reach from Formula One and IndyCar to a shot at overall victory at Le Mans, adding another famous name to a Hypercar field that already includes Ferrari, Peugeot and, more recently, Aston Martin and Ford.

McLaren may be a newcomer on paper, but it has been making noise well before the car turns a wheel in anger. The team has gradually built up its driver roster over the past year and selected United Autosports as the factory team that will run the car in the WEC next year. United’s LMP2 title in the European Le Mans Series this season was a strong sign that McLaren is up for the challenge.

Barclay, who grew up next to the Kyalami circuit in South Africa, spoke to the media, including GT REPORT, during the 6 Hours of Barcelona weekend. He discussed where the programme currently stands and looked ahead to the next steps for the MCL-HY.

Six tests down and right on plan for the MCL-HY

According to Barclay, McLaren is right on its planned trajectory and now understands where the car’s performance lies after the initial phase of testing, from Imola, Portimão and Aragón to Silverstone.

“This year has been a massive year, winding back to the roll-out in May. With six tests down, it’s been a really good process of getting the car working and improving, while also doing our validation work in parallel, with a lot of lessons learnt, which is what we wanted [it] to be about.”

With a clear target to aim for, the three remaining tests are about getting ready, finishing the test programme on plan and achieving “what McLaren needs to do” ahead of the car’s debut next season. Those tests will mix endurance running with performance and set-up work, ramping up from one car to two cars and, after the end of this WEC season, to all six of next year’s drivers getting behind the wheel.

Hypercar experience first: “We’ve got to have equal or stronger driver line-ups”

McLaren is widely believed to have its full driver line-up for next season signed and has so far announced four of the six: Mikkel Jensen, Laurens Vanthoor, Alex Lynn and academy talent Leonardo Fornaroli. The first three all bring Hypercar experience from other manufacturers.

“One thing we’ve always said is being a new team, and we haven’t been in endurance racing for a long time, having drivers with real experience of the category was critical. We want the best drivers we can get, we want the right characters we can get and we’ve been super happy with the drivers we’ve announced.”

Barclay dismissed any move for Alpine drivers following the news that Geely will not be taking over the programme in 2027, insisting the development has not changed McLaren’s plans. The South African believes assembling a competitive driver line-up is just as important as developing the car itself, with a focus on drivers who can not only accelerate McLaren’s learning process but also compete with the top teams in the WEC. “You can’t leave anything on the table, and drivers are a big part of that.”

“We’ve got to have equal or stronger driver line-ups, from what I’ve learned from my experience. When you don’t have the same tools in the same tool chest, you lag behind. It’s the same on the car. If you don’t have the car development, or the right drivers exactly where it needs to be, you’re behind.”

Barclay was full of praise for Laurens Vanthoor, McLaren’s new signing from Porsche, and how quickly he has settled in.

“He’s a professional and he comes and does a fantastic job in the car. It’s like we’ve been working together for a long time already. His feedback and pace were amazing and [we were] really proud to see him [at] Petit Le Mans. I can see he loves driving for McLaren. He’s already established a great relationship with Mikkel and we’re really proud to have him on board.” The shared motivation to win Le Mans is what pushes this team forwards, he added.

Two-driver line-ups for 2027 are not an option either.

“There’s a real benefit in having the three drivers that you go and do the biggest race of the year [Le Mans] with. You have that race experience together. So while some races, strategically, you got to weigh up the pros and cons, but from our perspective, we need the ability to have three top line drivers who can be in the car at the same time.”

Saucy, Verschoor, Fornaroli: one academy for F1, Hypercar and IndyCar

A key component of this strategy is the McLaren Driver Development Programme, which serves the Hypercar, IndyCar and Formula One operations.

“It’s the McLaren Driver Development Programme, not the McLaren Formula One Driver Development Programme. It’s more than that, with Grégoire Saucy, Richard Verschoor, Leo Fornaroli, we have great talents in our pool. We’ve always said that’s the McLaren driver development pool and we look at all series from Formula One, Hypercar, IndyCar. It’s important, like all the top race teams, that we have a great academy.”

Lando Norris “nearly missed his flight” after his MCL-HY debrief

Lando Norris is not part of next season’s line-up, and a Le Mans start is not on the cards. Even so, his recent MCL-HY test at Portimão was a really useful outing for the United Autosports crew. Norris completed 38 laps on a day he shared with works drivers Jensen and Vanthoor.

“The fact that he really pushed to drive the car was great. It shows how attractive the category is to the world’s top drivers at the moment.

“He does a fantastic job in the car as well. His quality is clear and was straight onto the pace. What was also really interesting is his feedback: it’s the first time he’s driven a car like this since his LMP2 outing at Daytona [back in 2018], and his experience of Formula One was very interesting. We got a good parameter of where the Hypercar has some real strengths, and also areas where we can probably make some gains. That was, for us, really positive.”

Barclay said the Formula One World Champion enjoyed the technical side of things, from where the car currently stands to where gains can be made and what he sees as its real strengths. Norris described the car as “fast and exciting to drive”.

“He nearly missed his flight because he was enjoying debriefing with us, which was honestly awesome.”

There are no current plans for Norris to drive the car again, but Barclay said he would love to return if his schedule allowed. “He’ll have a long career, and I have no doubt at some point in time, he’ll want to tick the box.”

Formula E lessons for homologation: “Once it is locked, it’s locked”

Before joining the McLaren Hypercar programme in September last year, Barclay brought Jaguar into Formula E and led the team as team principal from 2015 to 2025. That experience of building and developing a works operation from scratch has proved valuable, he told GT REPORT, as McLaren prepares for its Hypercar debut.

“I was part of the final planning for the fourth-generation Formula E powertrain before I left Jaguar. But in the early days, you develop a car every year. We were bringing a new powertrain every year, then we got to a two-year cycle. Bringing a new car every year was super exciting, very aggressive development, parallel with racing. So I would say it was a very useful experience.”

The former Jaguar boss is equally clear on the importance of getting the homologation process right under the new Hypercar ruleset in the WEC.

“We homologate the car as best as we can because once it is locked, it’s locked. With the new regulations around where you play performance evolutions, you can’t play them at any point in time. You have to demonstrate you have a shortfall. So it’s really important that we get that right.”

Although McLaren is approaching the process for the first time, Barclay believes his Formula E years provide a strong foundation. “That experience in Formula E, bringing the car to homologation and develop[ing] the car from there through the software is largely the same [as what] we have here.”

IMSA can wait: WEC foundations come first

Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, has previously spoken of an ambition to race the MCL-HY in North America. Barclay is more cautious, stressing that McLaren must first establish a solid foundation in the WEC before considering IMSA.

The immediate priority is getting the WEC programme running as intended. “We need to make sure we set the foundations here first and don’t distract from that core objective. If we can get to a good place, knowing the programme’s now running the way we’d like it to and we’re fine-tuning, we can earn the freedom to start focusing on IMSA. But we’d love to be racing there.”

On the other side of the Pacific, Ferrari is currently the only Hypercar manufacturer running in the Asian Le Mans Series this winter, fielding two cars with AF Corse and Cetilar Racing. Barclay did not rule out McLaren joining the Pro-Am Hypercar field in the future: “Anything where we can take this car and race it in other markets, where there’s a desire and a viable business case to do it, absolutely.”

For now, though, the focus is on the car and the brand behind it. “From our point of view, our job is to make a car which is super competitive. McLaren is an amazing brand doing amazing things in racing, but it’s also a very exciting time for the brand in the automotive side of things. I think we have the ingredients for the future there.”