Here's the thing: McLaren is officially coming back to the top tier of international endurance racing, and they have secured their first piece of the puzzle. Mikkel Jensen has been confirmed as the inaugural Hypercar recruit for the British brand's 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign. The effort will run under the banner of the McLaren United AS WEC Hypercar Team, bringing together the McLaren Technology Centre-based McLaren Racing and the powerhouse sportscar outfit United Autosports.
For Jensen, stepping into this machine is properly emotional. The Dane admitted to feeling goosebumps simply walking the boulevard at the McLaren Technology Centre, where the sight of the 1995 Le Mans-winning F1 GTR reminded him of the heavy legacy waiting to be continued. It is a stunning homecoming of sorts for a brand that triumphed at La Sarthe on its debut nearly thirty years ago.
Jensen brings serious pedigree to the garage. His professional career kicked off in 2017, moving swiftly from GT categories into prototypes where he collected the European Le Mans Series LMP3 class crown in 2019 and the IMSA LMP2 division title two years later. Peugeot snapped him up for their fledgling Hypercar effort in 2022, and he rewarded them with FIA WEC podium finishes every single season from 2023 to 2025, highlighted by a second-place finish at Fuji last September. Currently racing for United Autosports in the Asian Le Mans Series, he is also heading to Daytona's 'Roar Before The Rolex 24' test ahead of the IMSA curtain-raiser.
The timing couldn't be sharper. The manufacturer is targeting a repeat of its historic success, though doing so means wrestling past a brutal field featuring eight major global marques on the grid, with Ford also joining the fray in 12 months' time. Team Principal James Barclay knows the stakes are high, pointing out that Jensen arrives with vital Hypercar experience just as the championship enters what could be its most fiercely disputed season ever.
Over the next 12 months, the squad will dedicate itself entirely to developing the new Hypercar. Jensen will play a significant role in that punishing workload before the prototype is finally revealed later this year. In an extraordinary twist of design freedom under the FIA WEC technical regulations, McLaren Racing and McLaren Automotive are also jointly conceiving a customer track variant of the Hypercar codenamed Project: Endurance, offering a rare chance to own a true Le Mans machine.
