One of the most talked-about debuts at Top Marques Monaco 2026 was not a road car. McLaren’s MCL-HY — the hypercar the British manufacturer will campaign at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2027 — made its Monaco appearance fresh from its global reveal on 4th May, and the crowds it drew throughout the show reflected just how significant this moment is in McLaren’s history.
It is the first time since the F1 GTR’s legendary outright victory at Le Mans in 1995 that McLaren has built a car for the top class of endurance racing. Built to LMDh regulations, the MCL-HY combines a lightweight carbon fibre monocoque with a twin-turbocharged V6 race engine paired with a hybrid system, delivering up to 707PS to the rear axle. Its striking test livery — revealed at Top Marques in papaya and carbon — is inspired by the McLaren M6A, the car Bruce McLaren once dreamed of taking to Le Mans, rooting the MCL-HY firmly in the marque’s racing heritage.
Neil Underwood, Head of McLaren Track Cars, was on hand at Top Marques to explain the programme — and the remarkable client experience being built around it.
“This is the first car since the McLaren F1 GTR — the one that won Le Mans — that a customer can own a derivative of,” he told Monaco Life’s Cassandra Tanti. “They can own one outright. That’s a fascinating story in itself.”
More than a racing return
Running alongside the McLaren Hypercar Team’s WEC programme is Project Endurance — a separate but parallel initiative built around the MCL-HY GTR, a distinct track-only car inspired by the race car but engineered exclusively for private clients. The GTR will never race at Le Mans; instead it is designed to give its owners the closest possible experience to the real thing.
The GTR ditches the mandatory hybrid system in favour of a purer, lighter setup powered solely by the 2.9-litre twin-turbo racing engine, producing around 730PS — engineered for the track without the regulatory complexity of the race car.
But the car itself, Underwood is keen to stress, is only part of what clients are buying into.
“Owning a car is so much more than just owning a car nowadays,” he said. “We’ll take them to Dallara in Italy, where the car is being built. We’ll take them to Le Mans as our guests, where they’ll be in the pits listening in on the team principal’s communications during the race. It will be a really immersive experience.”
Deliveries of the MCL-HY GTR begin towards the end of 2027, after which each owner receives a fully supported two-year track programme — six events and 12 days of driving — included in the package.
As for the price? “We don’t really quote the prices of our cars,” Underwood said. “But let’s say it’s in the millions of euros.”
The bigger picture
The MCL-HY’s return to Le Mans completes the final piece of McLaren’s bid for the Triple Crown of Motorsport — victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With the team already competing at the top of Formula 1 and IndyCar, the WEC programme beginning in 2027 is the missing piece of an ambition McLaren is now uniquely positioned to pursue.
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Main photo credit: Cassandra Tanti