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

McLaren will retur൲n to the top echelon of sportscar racing in 2💧027 as part of a new Hypercar programme in the World Endurance Championship with a Da♐llara-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 ce♛ntrepiꦰece round of the 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," Brꦬown 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 93rওd 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.

B❀rown admitted that ♌it’s becoming increasingly harder to avoid calendar conflicts between major championships.

“You know these 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 then it has a knock-on effect to another show. I wouldn't want to be the perso🍨n responsible for the calendars.

“I think Formula One will do everything they can to not conflict 🎃with Le Mans. Obviously, it now conflicts with Indy [500] next year, but I think that'll only be one of ꦕevery 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 stream, McLaren Racing will be running three major racing programmes in ♔parallel - Formula 1, IndyCar and WEC.

It has also bꦚeen participating in Formula E since the 2022-23 season, but will bring down the curtain to its involvement in the all-electric series after July’s London finale.

However, Brown is not worried about McLaren spreading itself too thin, stating that iꦰt will be able to rℱamp up its operations to incorporate another 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 serieꦛs at any one time, so we are creating capacity.

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

“Everyonꦗe'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 𝕴finance team, my HR team, but then you just scale up accordingly.

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

Why McLaren chose now to join the WEC

The Hypercar class was introduced in WEC four years ag🌳o, whileꦰ most of the manufacturers currently competing today joined the category in 2023, coinciding with the arrival of LMDh regulations.

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

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

“The strength of our Formula One and IndyCar team definitely has an element of that, and then ൩also the success of this new pℱlatform, so you kind of put that all together, the timing is good.”

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