Reigning System 1 world champion Lando Norris fancies himself a drive on the 24 Hours of Le Mans sooner or later. With McLaren’s increasing endurance racing programme, there’s an more and more obtainable route for such an ambition to be realised.
Talking in a video revealed to McLaren’s YouTube channel, the 2025 drivers’ champion mentioned his aspirations past the tight cockpit of a papaya-coloured F1 automotive.
“You understand, I nonetheless really feel like I need to go and check out different issues,” he mentioned. “Do Le Mans, now McLaren are doing Le Mans, so possibly go and do this sooner or later.
“However I do not know. I am nonetheless younger, so I’ve not considered every thing simply but. However, you recognize, sooner or later hopefully I’ve children they usually get into racing or one thing after which I can dwell the story once more.”
The Woking-based producer has made stable progress in endurance racing, just lately unveiling the MCL-HY Hypercar – the machine that can compete within the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2027.
It has already been pushed in anger by Mikkel Jensen, who turned the primary driver to check a top-category McLaren sportscar because the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown had already teased the thought of each Norris and his team-mate Oscar Piastri being concerned within the programme.
McLaren MCL-HY
Picture by: McLaren
“I really like the old fashioned racing,” he advised WEC TV in early 2025. “The Mario Andrettis, Dan Gurneys… they ran in several formulation… Now, with how large the game is corporately, you get into producer conflicts, sponsor conflicts, calendar conflicts, and that is why I cherished racing with Fernando a lot. Whether or not it is Le Mans, Indy or Dakar, he simply needs to race.
“I believe we’re very open-minded,” he added. “Who does not need to win Le Mans? I’ve talked to Lando and Oscar about it, they usually’ve mentioned they’d like to go race Le Mans. That is cool, proper? I believe all these motorsports converging are nice.
“We love sportscar racing [at McLaren]. We’re the one crew to have received the Triple Crown, it might be cool to go for it once more. We’re impressed with the principles, the competitors.”
Norris had confirmed his curiosity throughout the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, too, the place he advised reporters he’d “love” to tackle Le Mans. As Brown said, orchestrating a Le Mans marketing campaign would require cautious scheduling round such a prolonged F1 calendar.
Having secured the championship win final yr, the 26-year-old appears to be casting his gaze in the direction of La Sarthe.
We wish your opinion!
What would you wish to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Group
