24 April 2026 15:00 (UTC)
"We are in a golden era of sportscar racing and the Hypercar category continues to be extremely successful"
McLaren Racing has revealed the name of the FIA Hypercar that will return the iconic motorsport team to the pinnacle of sports car racing. The McLaren MCL-HY will compete for overall honours in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2027 in one of the most exciting eras of endurance.
Alongside its WEC and Le Mans programme, McLaren has also announced a track car variant and supporting track day programme that also provides exclusive access to the team’s return to sports car racing’s top class through the hyper-exclusive Project: Endurance.
The MCL-HY adopts McLaren Racing’s established Formula 1 naming convention, combining the ‘MCL’ prefix with the Hypercar designation ‘HY’ reinforcing the brand’s unified motorsport identity across the highest categories of motorsport and signalling its commitment to the highly successful WEC category.
For the track variant, McLaren Automotive has chosen a storied name for this unique proposition. MCL-HY GTR brings with it the legendary ‘GTR’ name associated with iconic McLaren customer racing and track cars; the McLaren F1 GTR that won Le Mans outright in 1995, and subsequently applied to the McLaren P1 GTR and McLaren Senna GTR.
This announcement precedes the full reveal on 4th May of both the 2027 race car and its track car counterpart, which have been developed through close collaboration between McLaren Racing and McLaren Automotive.
“Taking the McLaren name back to the pinnacle of sportscar racing is a huge milestone and it’s a proud time for everyone within McLaren Racing and McLaren Automotive to share the name of our new Hypercar that 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. Our development MCL-HY will be revealed in its incredibly cool test livery ahead of our first rollout.”
