When the new Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar finished eighth and its drivers scored four points at Spa earlier this year, on just its second FIA World Endurance Championship outing, it redefined what was possible for a car still in its infancy.
Considering the Genesis was up against rivals with several seasons of competition under their belt amid a strong 17-car top-class entry, and it suffered from the unfavorable Balance of Performance that all newcomers are greeted with, it was a pretty remarkable result.
But now another fledgling squad, with a car in a slightly different orange hue, is attempting to set a new benchmark. When McLaren rolled out its new MCL-HY Hypercar at Varano at in early May for its first tentative miles on track, it was already notable how early this milestone was reached.
After all, there were still at least ten months before the 2027 WEC season was due to begin. But McLaren has not rested on its laurels. After just two additional tests — held at Imola and Magny-Cours during the hot European summer — the Papaya outfit “stressed ourselves early” per team principal James Barclay by conducting an endurance test at Motorland Aragon.
Considering how soon this came in the car’s gestation, it was a decision that could have backfired spectacularly. Instead, the sole MCL-HY — run by McLaren’s partner United Autosports and piloted by confirmed 2027 WEC signings Mikkel Jensen and Laurens Vanthoor, along with McLaren Driver Development Program members Richard Verschoor and Gregoire Saucy, plus United regular Ben Hanley — completed over 30 hours of running. It was another significant flag in the sand.
Barclay says the team went into the test with high hopes but was still reassured by what was achieved.
“The best way to describe it is you have an idea, but you don’t really know,” says Barclay when asked by Sportscar365 about expectations heading to Aragon. “We weren’t confident, we weren’t unconfident. We had good tests [beforehand] but we didn’t really know.
“Some parts, would they reach life — you can make everything weigh a ton and you’ll have absolutely no problem, but when you’re trying to find margins, we didn’t know. That was the whole point in doing it early to understand where we are but the fact we’d been able to run over WEC distances up to that point gave us a good confidence.”