Optimum Motorsport is looking to end its 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup campaign on a high this weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portugal.
The team’s pair of McLaren GT3 Evos have both shown promising pace throughout the four rounds to-date, but various issues have left them short on the Endurance Cup silverware front, with just a single podium finish to the British squad’s name.
In the #4 Gold Cup effort, Harry George, Adam Smalley and Freddie Tomlinson – joined by Ruben del Sarte at the 24 Hours of Spa – have punched above their weight in a category featuring line-ups containing multiple factory aces, with a podium at Spa the highlight.
This was especially impressive given each driver except for Smalley is in their first year of GT3 competition, and have jumped in at the deep end in arguably the most-competitive GT3 series globally.
“It’s probably the hardest race series that you can do in a GT3 car,” Tomlinson tells DSC.
“It’s been a great season. Learning with Optimum, and having Adam’s experience as well has been a great help. It’s nice to have the reference, and he’s got a good relationship with McLaren as well, which helps a lot.”
GT3 is the latest category that the versatile Briton has tested himself in, with him having raced everything from LMP2 to GT4 machinery over the past three seasons. Thanks to this, the idea of racing a new car no longer daunts him, with it instead a key skill at his disposal.
“Lots of the top drivers now go from Hypercar to GT3 all the time, but it’s one of the things that you can only do with practice,” he states.
“The more you do it, the better you get at doing it. When I was a bit younger. I struggled a bit more, but now, whether it’s a front-engined car or a rear-engined car, it doesn’t make too much of a difference to me. I just go out and drive.”
For Tomlinson, the podium finish at Spa has naturally stood out as the season highlight, especially given it was achieved on his debut at the event.
“The podium at Spa was incredible,” he says. “It was really nice to enjoy that one with my teammates, and we all did a good job fighting through the night. It was just nice to get a reward after a proper 24 hours of work.
“I’ve done the Dubai 24 before, but Spa is a different animal. I don’t think there’s anything like it, especially at night. With 70 cars all doing the same lap time, it’s just full push for the full 24 hours, which was a great experience for me.”
Given the rookie status of his teammates, GT World Challenge Europe race winner Smalley has assumed a leadership role within the #4 McLaren camp this year.
“It’s been a tough season, but a really good learning curve, and I think everyone’s head are held high” the 25-year-old reflects.
“We’ve still got things to work on, but the team’s gotten stronger and stronger each round. We’ve been a bit unlucky along the way to be honest, with incidents at Paul Ricard and Monza, but I think that’s not a true reflection of how the year’s gone. If you strip it down and break it through session-by-session we’re doing a fantastic job.
“Freddie and Harry are getting there. They’re really great to work with, their work ethic’s fantastic, and as a squad we’re putting in a decent effort so we’re progressing.”
One challenge the #4 McLaren faces compared to its Gold Cup rivals is that it’s an Endurance Cup-only effort, up against a field half made-up of full-season opposition. This, naturally, puts it at a data deficit, especially given that Endurance Cup races can be as much as two months apart.
“As a good example, I did a new tyre run at Spa in the race, and my next new tyre run was eight weeks later at the Nürburgring in qualifying,” Smalley explains. “So in that time period, you’ve got factory drivers that have been out every single week in between.”
Smalley is no stranger to ending a season with success. 12 months ago, the Briton triumphed overall in the finale, on that occasion held at Barcelona, aboard a Garage 59-run Gold Cup McLaren.
“Replicating last year would be nice, wouldn’t it?” he says. “Let’s see how this year goes. We’ll aim as high as we can and take it from there.”
In this year’s Endurance Cup, no one has a better claim to being the unluckiest competitor than Optimum’s #5 McLaren of Guilherme Oliveira, Mikey Porter and Dante Rappange, who were joined at the 24 Hours of Spa by Salman Owega.
The Belgian endurance classic was the only time they’ve reached the chequered flag this season, with three retirements meaning that their title tilt has proven to be a non-starter despite only the championship-winning #30 Team WRT BMW outscoring them at the often-decisive 24-hour event.
Success has come, however, in the Sprint Cup, with two class wins and a further pair of podium finishes for Porter and Oliveira delivering third in the championship.
“We’ve definitely had a more successful Sprint season results-wise,” Porter reflects.
“We’ve been equally as strong in Endurance, but the luck side hasn’t been great. We’re looking to round it out strong this weekend. We’ve just got to work on the car and do what we usually do, and we’ll come out all right.”
The 19-year-old is coming to the end of his second full-season in GT3, having spent his entire time at this level aboard an Optimum Motorsport McLaren across GT World Challenge Europe, International GT Open and 24H Series competition.
“They’ve been absolutely great for me,” he says of his team. “They’ve helped me develop over the two years massively. It’s been great to learn with them for these past two years and start my career off strong with them.”
One key change for Porter this year has been his introduction into the McLaren GT3 Junior programme. In fact, the whole crew of the #5 McLaren are now Junior drivers with the papaya brand, after Porter joined the programme at the start of the season, and his teammates were added alongside him ahead of the 24 Hours of Spa.
“It was my goal at the end of last year to have this role, so it’s amazing to finally be on it,” Porter says.
“It’s cool to be able to go and do the development stuff wherever they want me around the world, and it’s nice to be part of something bigger than just the racing side of things.”
Despite being the track’s Endurance Cup debut, the popularity of Portimão with other series and as a testing venue means that all three drivers of the #5 McLaren are familiar with the 4.6-kilometre venue. This places the crew in a better position than it found itself in at several Sprint Cup rounds, where Porter and Oliveira were learning on the fly.
“It’s a track that we all know and we’re all confident with,” Porter says. “Me and G [Oliveira] have had a few tracks in the Sprint Cup that we’ve never been to, so the second half of the season has been a lot of learning for us just to get to grips everything. But the last two rounds, it’s tracks that we both know, so we’re really looking to finish with a strong result.”
