McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says the recently revealed LMDh technical details are ‘extremely appealing’ and is not ruling out an opportunity for the famous British marque to return to the pinnacle of sports car racing.
The LMDh platform will allow manufacturers to race cars in both the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from 2022.
Importantly, the LMDh cars will be based off latest the cost-capped LMP2 regulations, an aspect Brown says could make a full-time entry for McLaren an affordable project to race alongside their Formula 1 and IndyCar duties.
“It is something that we’re looking at,” Brown told RACER.com
“I think in an ideal world, that would be our motorsport portfolio: Formula 1, IndyCar and sports cars.
“They all serve different purposes and they’re all complimentary of each other.”
Brown is not stranger from the world of Sports Car racing. The 48-year-old co-owns the United Autosports Team which competes in the European Le Mans series, Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup as well as stints in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class.
However, he stressed that McLaren would have to see the full plan of the merger between the LMDh and LMH cars before making any decisions.
“We’ve got to take a ‘one step at a time’ approach,” he said.
“We’ve got our Formula 1 heading in the right direction, now we’ve just entered IndyCar, and we’ve been waiting to see what happens with the rules on sports cars.
“It looks like it’s going to land in the right place [although] I’m unsure if it’s going to be for 2022 or 2023.
“These decisions, just like IndyCar, it took us some time to get that put together and we had some stops and starts.
“But you’ve got to get back on the horse and go. If I can put together a front-running, financially sustainable plan, then I think we would enter sports cars.”
McLaren have contested the French classic amid its storied motorsport history, winning the race in 1995 on its first attempt in the dominant F1 GTR.
Such was the supremacy of the F1 GTR that it fulfilled four of the first five places.
Source: RACER.com