With the news that United Autosports is moving to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next year, DSC thought it was necessary to sit down at length with one of its co-owners, Richard Dean, to get more information on this hugely significant news story for the LMP2 marketplace.
United has been competing in the FIA WEC since 2019 and has been working hard for quite some time to secure its future in the championship for 2024 and beyond. But with the LMP2 gone from the WEC next year, due to the continuing growth in Hypercar and the introduction of LMGT3, United has been left with no choice but to look elsewhere.
Dean and Zak Brown had pushed hard over the past couple of years to secure a factory Hypercar deal that would see United graduate to the top class. In the end, though, nothing has come to fruition.
DSC understands that on two separate occasions, with two separate makes, United came extremely close to confirming a programme. But for different reasons, neither made it past the final sign-off, forcing it to explore all options available to continue as a privateer.
Thus, United will head stateside in 2024, and here’s what Dean had to say…
What can you tell us about your 2024 plans?
“If everyone who says they are going to bring a hypercar programme to the FIA WEC in 2024, turns up and the GT3 grid is healthy, of course LMP2 is going to get squeezed. We’ve been aware of this and trying to plan ahead. We are running a business, we can’t think only a few months ahead.
“At United, our WEC team is independent of our ELMS team, which is independent of our Le Mans Cup team and the group that runs Extreme E etc. We have to be, there’s a lot of people involved in our WEC programme. We can’t just suddenly find ourselves with no programme for them to run.”
And will this be a full-season effort in IMSA?
“Yes, exactly. We are committed to the full season with a base over there. We have a place in West Palm Beach, Florida for our trucks and where we can send people to work on the cars and receive deliveries. That’s where we have been based since we did Daytona with Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso in 2018.
We are committed to the full season with a base over there
“It’s not comparable to our workshop in the UK, so we need to have a permanent base, which is what we are working on now.
“We will be taking our WEC team to run a full programme.”
So what is the current situation for United Autosports regarding Hypercar?
“We want a Hypercar deal, but it’s out of our hands. We can’t force a deal to happen.”
You have ties with both McLaren through Zak (Brown) and the Acura GTP effort via your partnership with Andretti.
Are you obliged to compete in the Hypercar class with McLaren due to Brown’s position at McLaren Racing, or is there the potential to enter the FIA WEC with Honda, using the ARX-06 platform?
“We’re not obligated to go with McLaren. There just isn’t a deal there. I can’t conjure something up. There are chances of a privateer deal if we could fund it. But we’ve been focused for the last couple of years on a factory deal.
“There are opportunities out there, but not in the short term. We’re looking at 2025 or 2026 for those. It’s not our decision. We have to work towards that. It’s not going to happen in 2024 so we need to keep our WEC team active, focused and current.
We’re not obligated to go with McLaren. There just isn’t a deal there
“As for Andretti, we’ve got a really good relationship there, we are still running the Extreme E programme for them and they have always been super helpful when we have come to the USA and competed in IMSA. It has always been easy to have a discussion with Michael and his organisation, but Andretti’s Acura IMSA programme is not connected to United in any way. There’s been no discussion in any detail about GTP in America for United.”
Have you explored LMGT3? Is there an appeal to competing in this new category alongside your IMSA programme?
“It’s either got to be Hypercar or GT3, Hypercar is not in our control, and with GT3 we’d be wrong to assume we could suddenly align ourselves with a manufacturer and become the chosen team. We have no significant experience in recent GT3 racing.
“We’d like to do GT3, but if each factory is only bringing two cars because there isn’t enough space on the grid, who would we work with who could guarantee that we could get a spot on the grid?
“It’s very hard to make a business commitment when you have a responsibility to the people we employ when it’s all based on ‘hope’. If I go to Porsche, I won’t get a space, it’s the same at Ferrari, Lamborghini and BMW. So, you have to look at manufacturers not in WEC, but there’s no certainty you’d get on the grid.
“So it makes sense for us to go and do IMSA.”
Have you made the FIA and ACO aware of this situation?
“Yes, we have had a dialogue throughout. We have wanted to make this announcement earlier but we wanted to respect the ACO and let them make their announcement on the future of the LMP2 category first.
“What we are going is watch GT, watch Hypercar, see how it all unfolds. We will keep an eye on it.
“In the meantime, we are going to throw everything at IMSA and take on that challenge.”
Beyond your two-car IMSA programme will you continue to compete in the ELMS and Asian Le Mans Series?
“We love LMP2 and LMP3, we enjoy it, we are going to stay in it. ELMS is strong, the ORECA is an incredible car for the money in particular. This move to IMSA doesn’t affect our commitments to the ELMS and Asian Le Mans Series and our desire to compete in both going forward.
“We also have a desire for two cars at Le Mans again next year. We love the places that ACO racing can take us.”
So there you have it, United Autosports is taking its flagship prototype programme to the USA. While this may come as a huge surprise to some, when you evaluate the options on the table for Richard Dean, Zak Brown and their organisation, moving to IMSA’s LMP2 class in 2024 is clearly the most logical one.
Is this ideal? No. But, this is a more than suitable compromise, that will see it continue to compete at a high level in IMSA, without the need to cobble together a programme with a brand new car, in a new category, on short notice.
Dean has made it clear that he would like United to return to the WEC in the future. But for now the challenge of IMSA awaits.
What will United’s effort look like if and when it makes its return? Will United find a solution for its Hypercar goal? We now wait to find out…
