That loyalty might finally be snapping after more than a decade of shared history. According to Motorsport-Total.com, a stunning paddock rumor suggests that the 12-year Lamborghini stalwart Grasser Racing Team and star driver Mirko Bortolotti are both eyeing a potential brand switch to McLaren for 2027. It sounds almost impossible given how deeply tied both names are to the Italian manufacturer, but scratch beneath the surface and a massive restructuring makes the move entirely plausible.
At the heart of this tectonic shift is Giorgio Sanna. The former head of Lamborghini's Squadra Corse department moved to McLaren a year ago as the new sporting director in the GT division, following his departure from the Audi subsidiary in 2024. Sanna has big ambitions to transform McLaren from a Formula 1-focused marque into an absolute GT3 powerhouse ahead of a brand-new car arriving in 2028. Gottfried Grasser, who built up one of the very first customer teams for Lamborghini and helped forge the Huracan GT3, now appears ready to follow his old ally across the fence.
For 36-year-old Bortolotti, the incentives to jump ship are equally compelling. The Vienna-based Italian has a contract that officially expires at the end of 2026, a fact he confirmed back in August at the DTM round at the Nurburgring. When asked about the McLaren rumors at the time, he offered a playful deflection ("Why McLaren? Formula 1 or what? Formula 1 would be cool"), but the underlying reality is far more turbulent. Lamborghini's hypercar project with the SC63 was abruptly discontinued at the end of 2025 after just two years, robbing Bortolotti of a true downforce prototype drive.
While a direct path to McLaren's 2027 World Endurance Championship hypercar project remains complicated due to organizational separation from the GT division, the lure of reuniting with Sanna and Grasser is immense. Bortolotti's recent seasons have been battered by frustration, including a tough 2025 campaign and a bruising 2026 plagued by the underdeveloped Temerario GT3 alongside bitter disqualifications in both the DTM at Oschersleben and the Nurburgring 24-hour race.
Even his recent appearance at the Lamborghini World Finals in Monza—where he posted photos captioned with a telling "Hell of a Ride"—offers no reassurance to the factory bosses. As Bortolotti himself noted regarding his 2027 schedule, nothing is locked in yet outside of a clear desire to keep racing in the DTM. If the whispers from the paddock prove true, the iconic pairing of Grasser and Bortolotti will trade the raging bull for the papaya machine, marking the end of an era in GT racing.
