McLaren Automotive is planning to restructure its customer racing programme in the coming years, with the British marque intending to wind down its GT4 presence by the end of the decade.
“We will continue to support the GT4 customer teams, but in three years’ time, we will be focused only on Trophy and GT3,” McLaren’s recently appointed new head of motorsport, Giorgio Sanna, told select reporters, including DSC, at Daytona last week.
McLaren first entered the GT4 ranks in 2016, with the 570S GT4 making its racing debut at that year’s British GT season opener at Brands Hatch. Its successor, the Artura GT4, made its debut seven years later during the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge round at Daytona International Speedway.
Last season, in the hands of Optimum Motorsport, the Artura won the GT4 drivers’ and teams’ titles in British GT, with the car also a race winner in series including Pilot Challenge and the GT4 European Series.
Sanna cited resource limitations as the primary reason behind the decision, as the brand looks to expand its one-make McLaren Trophy formula, which first raced in 2023, and added an American series to the original European championship last year.
“It’s a matter of resources, because it’s clear that we don’t have unlimited resources, and we have to keep focus on what we consider more important for the company and the brand,” he said.
“Honestly speaking, [it’s] also because we don’t believe that looking into the future, GT4 is the right place for a brand like McLaren. Knowing the product range of McLaren for the future, GT4 is not of interest for us.”
Two of McLaren’s key competitors in the supercar space, Ferrari and Sanna’s former employer Lamborghini, also focus on GT3 and one-making racing, and don’t have a GT4 presence.
“GT4, it’s a championship that we like,” Sanna explained. “We have a lot of customers. We will continue to support as much as we can their programmes. But GT4, looking into the medium and long term, is not the stage where McLaren will be.”
Sanna confirmed that McLaren would not begin ramping down its GT4 programme until 2029, with its Artura GT4 remaining on sale to customers until then.
“We’ll continue to sell cars, we will continue to support the teams, for the next three years,” he said.
“From 2029, the focus will be only on Trophy and GT3. And we will talk with our existing teams to investigate the opportunity to move from GT4 to the Trophy, because it’s possible also with an upgrade kit.”
For teams wanting to remain in GT4 beyond this point, McLaren will still offer limited support, in the form of the availability of spare parts.
This is because the current Artura GT4 shares a significant volume of parts with the Artura Trophy Evo, which is effectively an evolution of the GT4, meaning that the majority of components will still be in production even after the GT4 programme winds down.
“Spare parts will always be available because, fortunately, the existing car, the GT4, is similar to the Trophy. They share 90% of the components,” Sanna said.
“So we’ll continue to provide parts, of course, but in terms of effort and focus, step-by-step we will go in the direction to be focused only on the Trophy and the GT3.”
Image courtesy of McLaren
