Vanthoor Relishing McLaren’s “Very Different Approach”

Laurens Vanthoor is enjoying McLaren’s “very different approach” as he will be “living the dream x2” by racing top-tier prototype machinery for both the British manufacturer and Porsche next year.

The Belgian was announced in May as being part of McLaren Endurance Racing’s driver lineup for when its new MCL-HY Hypercar makes its debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2027.

Vanthoor has spent the past decade with Porsche and will continue to race a Penske-run 963 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Michelin Endurance Cup rounds next year before solely driving for McLaren from 2028.

He described joining McLaren as “leaving your comfort zone” but has been encouraged by how quickly he has felt welcome in his new surroundings and has enjoyed working with fellow 2027 signing Mikkel Jensen.

“I’ve been with Porsche for ten years and before I’ve been with Audi for five years — so a German OEM which is going racing,” said Vanthoor at a recent Silverstone test with McLaren.

“Now I’m with a British race team; McLaren Racing is a race team so it’s a very different approach.

“How budget is raised, how things work and also the mentality is different — Germans versus English, OEM mentality versus race team mentality, it’s been quite different but also very refreshing.

“I’m not saying it’s better or worse but when you’ve been doing something for ten years, it’s very refreshing to experience something new and that’s also part of why I wanted to do this.

“But it’s been going very smooth — I felt well very quickly and I felt a lot of respect.”

While Vanthoor’s Porsche departure stemmed from his desire to find a place where he can fight for outright victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans following the German brand’s WEC exit at the conclusion of last season, he said he was very selective about joining another manufacturer.

“There’s multiple good options around but I need to have a proudness of wearing this name on my chest and already coming from Porsche, coming from one of the best in endurance racing, there’s not many spots which can replace that,” Vanthoor explained.

“In my opinion, it would only be McLaren or Ferrari. All the others, with all due respect — they’re winning and they’re successful — but wouldn’t have that proudness of walking in through the front door and telling you I’m a race driver for X besides say McLaren.

“That’s what was important for me and, on top of that, I firmly believe that it attracts the best people for the same reason. All those factors made me want to be here.”

While Vanthoor admitted there has been a lot of travelling this season between racing for Porsche in North America and testing the McLaren in Europe, he believes being involved with two manufacturers brings many benefits.

“We all love racing, we all love cars, we all love teams — Penske, McLaren, Porsche, Ferrari and the brands, since we were little it’s what we’ve dreamed of,” he said.

“If, as a race car driver, on Monday and Tuesday you’re in Mooresville with Penske and they give you a shop tour because you’ve haven’t been there that often and you go for the whole tour and have lunch with Roger and you fly from Mooresville to London and you change your t-shirt into an orange t-shirt and you walk into MTC in Woking and you see Zak Brown and all of the Formula 1 cars there and in the evening you get in the hotel and you’re like ‘Those were two nice days.’

“For sure you’re working and you have stress and commitments but the child in yourself who loves racing, it’s hard to top that.”

Vanthoor acknowledged that he does have to be careful not to share sensitive information with a rival manufacturer and be “respectful to both.”

“I don’t have access to setup sheets and stuff like that because they don’t share that but it makes it very interesting,” he added. “It’s a luxury position to be in.”

Vanthoor has been “genuinely impressed” by the initial feeling of the MCL-HY and described the fact McLaren has already successfully begun endurance testing so early in the car’s development as a sign of “how serious they take the program.”

He said the early indications suggested the car has a “good” baseline that was “better than I hoped for.”

He added that the biggest difference between the Porsche and the McLaren is with steering.

“It took me five/six laps and it was OK, it’s nice and I started to build up that confidence,” Vanthoor explained of the learning process.

“Sometimes when you jump into a different car you need a whole day to get used to it but that was not the case.”