Tag: mclaren

McLaren Motorsport Confirms 2026 Factory GT Racing Driver Line-Up

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After a successful 2025 season in which McLaren Motorsport claimed its first FIA World Endurance Championship, returned to the top step of the GT World Challenge Europe podium, and secured GT4 titles in both Britain and Australia, 2026 is set to be an even bigger year as McLaren Motorsport confirms its expanded roster of 16 Factory Drivers — a distinguished and international lineup representing the brand’s competitive racing DNA across leading global GT series.

As an integral element of McLaren Motorsport’s GT racing proposition, the Factory Drivers form part of McLaren’s customer racing programmes globally, while feeding into the development programmes of the GT3, GT4 and Trophy car range.

German racer Marvin Kirchhöfer once again heads the Factory Driver line up, with Briton Dean MacDonald, Benjamin Goethe, Arthur Rougier and Simon Gachet returning. All had strong campaigns last year in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance and Sprint Cup series.

Joseph Loake graduates from the previous Junior Pro category to become a fully-fledged Factory Driver after impressing on his GT debut last year. The 2023 Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award winner previously raced single seaters in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The programme has now been streamlined, with the previous Junior Pro and Graduate categories merging to form the McLaren GT3 Junior Driver category. Benefitting from the tutelage of former McLaren Factory Driver, and now McLaren Motorsport Sporting Director, Rob Bell, ten drivers will become GT3 Junior Drivers. DTM driver Ben Dörr returns, as does Josh Rattican, who extends his stay on the programme into a fourth year. 2023 McLaren Trophy Europe champion Tommy Pintos also remains and is joined by 2025 champion Jayden Kelly, who moved into GT3 racing late last year.

Six new members include Garage 59 driver, and overall GT World Challenge Endurance Cup race winner in Barcelona, 27-year-old Monégasque-Italian Louis Prette. He is joined by Garage 59 teammate and recently announced FIA World Endurance Championship driver Tom Fleming. In 2025, the Essex-born Fleming dovetailed his GT World Challenge campaign with a European Le Mans Series programme.

Also in the McLaren factory GT fold for 2026 are James Kell, Mikey Porter, Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and Zak Meakin. Kell, who has previously raced a 570 GT4 and GT3 EVO McLarens in British GT undertook a combined GT Open and GT World Challenge programme last season. Similarly, Porter raced in both championships for stalwart McLaren Customer Racing team Optimum Motorsport. 2022 GT World Challenge Europe Silver Cup champion Jean Baptiste joins the programme after two years of racing prototypes in the European Le Mans Series Zak Meakin was the 2024 British GT GT4 champion and a 2025 McLaren Trophy Europe race winner.

With both Tommy Pintos and Jayden Kelly on the programme, there is now a very clear progression from the McLaren Trophy one-make championships to becoming full Factory Drivers. Introduced in 2025, the McLaren Trophy Academy will be enhanced this year to provide greater experience to the professional drivers competing in the McLaren Trophy series, as well as drivers of an eligible age. The full line-up of McLaren Trophy Academy drivers will be announced in June.

Giorgio Sanna, Head of Motorsport, McLaren Automotive, “I am really pleased that we have a strong group of drivers making up the Factory Driver programme. Marvin, Dean, Benji, Simon, Arthur and Joseph are all top GT drivers, and it is a credit to our factory roster that we have them onboard. The eight GT3 Junior Driver members are all promising talents coming from McLaren Trophies and GT4 and we will be keeping a close eye on their progress. The renewed McLaren Trophy Academy programme dedicated to the best talent drivers competing in our one make series has the target to be a reference GT drivers development program at global level , 2026 is shaping up to be a very exciting season.”

Rob Bell, Sporting Director, McLaren Automotive, “Once again, we have been able to move the McLaren Motorsport Factory Driver programme up a gear. With an expanded line-up and a clear development focus the future is looks very bright. With Marvin, Benji and Tom racing in WEC this year we can now support a straight-line progression from McLaren Trophy to the peak of GT racing in the World Endurance Championship.”

Limited McLaren MCL39 Models Debut Ahead Of Las Vegas Grand Prix

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Amalgam Collection, the world’s leading creator of large scale hand-built model cars, has unveiled three new McLaren Racing masterpieces: the 1:8 scale McLaren MCL39, a full-size replica of the MCL39 steering wheel and a 1:18 scale model, offering collectors the complete MCL39 line-up. These editions celebrate McLaren’s standout performance at the 2025 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix, where Lando Norris delivered a race win and Oscar Piastri secured ninth place.

The £8,995 1:8 scale MCL39 captures McLaren’s 2025 challenger in remarkable detail. Measuring more than 70cm long and constructed from thousands of precision-engineered components, each model is hand-built over 250 hours following more than 2,500 hours of development using original CAD and paint specifications supplied and approved by McLaren Racing. Editions for both Norris and Piastri are strictly limited to just 99 pieces per driver.

Alongside it, Amalgam presents the £6,995 full-size replica MCL39 steering wheel – a completely accurate recreation of the real race-used component – also limited to just 99 pieces per driver. Featuring working buttons, switches, rotaries and paddles, each wheel is engineered and hand-finished to replicate the exact weight, feel and functionality of the drivers’ own equipment.

Completing the collection is the newly available £1,050 1:18 scale MCL39, measuring over 31cm (12in) long. Developed over 800 hours and featuring precisely engineered castings, photo-etched details and CNC-machined metal components, the model provides a beautifully crafted foundational piece to the MCL39 series while retaining Amalgam’s hallmark accuracy and craftsmanship.

Sandy Copeman, Founder of Amalgam Collection, said: “McLaren’s performance in Melbourne set the tone for their 2025 campaign, and we’re proud to capture that moment across a full model collection. Whether at 1:8, 1:18 or full-size steering wheel scale, each piece reflects the technical brilliance and excitement of modern Formula 1.

“In recent years, we’ve seen a surge in collectors viewing cars as art investments, and most of our models are themselves created as limited-edition artworks, with only a very small number available. 2025 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for McLaren, and owning one of these ultra-limited Amalgam pieces is like owning a piece of automotive art that commemorates a defining season.”

Ground-Breaking McLaren W1 Breaks Cover At 2025 Goodwood Festival Of Speed

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The Goodwood Festival of Speed this month will see McLaren Automotive celebrate its remarkable road cars and motorsports successes in line with the 2025 festival theme of, ‘Champions and Challengers’.

On public display for the first time and taking centre stage at ‘McLaren House’, the McLaren W1 combines real supercar attributes of sensational power delivery, authentic theatre and pure driver connection to deliver an incredible driving experience on road or track. Just 399 examples have been offered for customer specification, and all are allocated.

Featuring an all-new, 1275PS V8 hybrid powertrain driving the rear wheels and groundbreaking active aerodynamics – including Formula 1-inspired ground effect aero – the W1 is the third car in McLaren’s unique ‘1’ car lineage. It lines up at Goodwood alongside the legendary McLaren F1 and McLaren P1, showcasing how McLaren has challenged convention across multiple eras by delivering three truly phenomenal cars linked by their DNA, each with its own distinctive story.

McLaren will also mark 30 years since it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans – at its first attempt – with two distinctive celebrations at the 2025 Festival of Speed. The F1 GTR that took victory in the famous endurance race – and is recently returned from being displayed in the ‘McLaren a Name for Eternity’ exhibition at the Le Mans Museum – will make a rare dynamic appearance at the festival. The #59 car will be driven on the Goodwood Hillclimb by JJ Lehto, one of the three-driver team that achieved McLaren’s famed win.

The new 750S Le Mans is also rooted in the 1995 triumph. Announced in June, this highly exclusive supercar will be presented to McLaren customers and enthusiasts visiting McLaren House. Limited to 50 customer examples, the 750S Le Mans features a new McLaren Special Operations (MSO) High Downforce Kit that enhances downforce and circuit performance. It is a fitting homage to the legendary McLaren F1 LM road car, itself built in extremely limited numbers to celebrate our iconic Le Mans victory.

In each of the last two years at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, McLaren has delivered breathtaking moments with the track-only Solus GT. This fantasy-to-reality single-seat hyper-GT features an 840PS naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 engine and weighs less than 1,000kg.

The Solus GT demonstrated its extreme performance in 2023, when it won the Timed Shootout Final in an absorbing spectacle of noise and speed. And last year, it again appeared on the hillclimb with double Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion Mika Häkkinen at the wheel of a customer car painted by MSO to precisely match his 1998 championship winning MP4/13 Formula 1 car. This year, McLaren will once again exhibit – and run – a customer example of this extraordinary supercar, which expresses the bespoke-to-customer possibilities and luxury craftsmanship inherent to McLaren Special Operations.

750S and Artura MCL38 Celebration Edition supercars will take part in Goodwood dynamic runs. Announced shortly after the McLaren Formula 1 team secured the 2024 Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship, just nine each of 750S and Artura models will be produced. The Celebration Edition cars feature a livery curated by MSO, centred on the Papaya Orange and Anthracite colourways that distinguish McLaren within the motorsport world.

Additionally, 2025 sees McLaren marking a decade of its thrilling and unforgettable ‘LT’ cars. Introduced to owners and other enthusiasts in March of this year, the ‘Celebrate LT’ initiative has brought together the community of LT owners globally through retailer-led community events. LT models from McLaren’s own Heritage collection will be positioned in the Goodwood ‘Supercar Paddock’, venturing out to take part in dynamic displays.