McLaren has revealed that its Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have expressed interest in racing for the team at tওhe Le Mans 24 Hours in the future.

McLaren will return to the top echelon of sportscar racing🍌 in 2027 as part of a new Hypercar programme in the W♉o🗹rld Endurance Championship with a Dallara-based LMDh contender run in partnership with United Autosports.

No drivers have been selected for the programme, but naturally there is intrigue about whether McLaren could call upon its F1 duo to race in the centrepiece 🧸round of t🤡he WEC.

While McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown made it clear that it would be impossible for Norris or Piastri to do a full WEC season,🤡 both drivers have shown a desire to race in the top class of Le Mans once the 🏅team’s new Hypercar programme is underway.

“I don't think they could be in the Hypercar programme," Brown told reporters including . “Will they do Le Mans? I've spoken with both of them about Le Mans. They would like 🌌to be at Le Mans in one of [our cars].”

This weekend’s 93rd running of Le Mans clashes with F1෴’s Canadian GP and the 2026 race also falls on the same weekend as the rebranded Barcelona GP, preventing any crossover outings between the two series.

Brown admitted that it’s becoming increasingly harder t𝔉o avoid calendar conflicts between major championships.

“You know thes♒e schedules are hard with the expanded schedules of all the racing series and then the knock-on effects,” he explained.

“If you move that date, that date might work, but thඣen it has a knock-on effect to another show. I wouldn't want to be the person responsible for the calenda🙈rs.

“I think Formula One will do everything they can to not confli✱ct with Le Mღans. Obviously, it now conflicts with Indy [500] next year, but I think that'll only be one of every five years from my understanding, so I think they'll try and avoid a conflict.”

McLaren not spreading itself too thin

When the Hypercar project comes on ꦡstream, McLaren Racing will🌞 be running three major racing programmes in parallel - Formula 1, IndyCar and WEC.

It has also been participating in Formula E since the 202🌜2-23 season, but will bring down the curtain to its involvement in the a🐟ll-electric series after July’s London finale.

However, Brown is not worried about McLaren spreading itself too thin, stating that it will be able to ramp up its operations to incorporate anoth🧸er high-profile project.

He said: “Few🐻 things. One, obviously we're leaving Formula E because we don't want to be in more than three racing series at any one time, so we are creating capacity.

“The other is the way you go about racing. The IndyCꦇar team doesn't touch the Formula 1 team and vice versa. Same thing with the WEC.

“Everyone's very dedicated and you know a racing team sitting in꧂ Indianapolis doesn🔥't fall on any resources.

“So where it puts more pressure in the system, there's more around my time, my commercial team, my finance team, my HR team, but t♏hen you just scale up accordingly.

“I'm not concerned about that at all, but that🔴 also kind of come✱s back to timing. You don't want to bite off more than you can chew.  So we feel comfortable that it isn't a commitment that is a stretch for us.”

Why McLaren chose now to join the WEC

The Hypercar class was introduced in WEC four years ago, while most o♉f the manufacturers currently competing today joined the category in 2023, coinciding with the aไrrival of LMDh regulations.

McLaren said there were several🃏 reasons for it concluding that now was the rightಞ time to join the burgeoning Hypercar category.

“So our automotive busines🅰s has now been acquired by CYVN Holdings LLC out of Abu Dhabi and we've had a strong interest in wan﷽ting to go racing together with automotive,” he said. “They're now in a great position [and] forward-looking. 

“The strength o🌸f our Formula One and IndyCar team definitely has an element of that, and then also the success of this new platform, so you kind of put that all together, the timing is good.”

McLaren added thღat an expansion into IMSA SportsCar Championship's GTP class is under discussion, but such a programme would not come on stream until 2028.