United Autosports Still “Pushing Hard” for Hypercar Deal

Photo: MPS Agency

United Autosports has not given up hopes of entering the top prototype class in the future despite its move away from the FIA World Endurance Championship next year according to team co-owner Richard Dean.

The Anglo-American squad will shift its WEC LMP2 operation to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship full-time amid the category’s elimination from the world championship beginning in 2024.

This has not detracted from a possible Hypercar or IMSA GTP class operation, with the team understood to have still been in continued discussions with prospective new manufacturers to the category.

“We have not taken our foot off the pedal at all,” Dean told Sportscar365. “To force a door open there’s got to be a door that you’ve got to be knocking on that somebody’s answering and having a conversation.

“We got pretty close, we think, and the opportunity went away [for this year] but we’re still pretty optimistic about it.

“If it was my decision, we’d be here in Hypercar now. It’s not my decision but we’re still pushing hard and I’m pretty optimistic.

“It’s just the timing of it is getting pushed back and that’s why keeping the WEC team motivated together in a relevant series, a high-profile series like IMSA allows United Autosports to be able to be ready to go if that opportunity comes.”

While previously indicating that United would only be interested in a factory program, Dean admitted that it could entertain the possibility of customer cars depending on the circumstance.

However, he said said they’re taking a wait-and-see approach on evaluating the true costs of a privateer top-class program.

“I definitely wouldn’t say that I’m not open to any conversation about a privateer car but we’ve not even really run a budget of what that looks like because the conversations we’ve had have been with a manufacturer [for a factory effort],” Dean explained.

“I don’t want to give up on that at the moment. We’re obviously watching with interest how JOTA and Proton are going to get on [as customers].

“How the privateer integrates into Hypercar, what that means to the grid size and the GT grid, how many privateers can come into that and what the budget looks like, it would be nice to [have] some other people find those things out before figuring out what it really costs to run a privateer Hypercar.”

Dean admitted they initially looked at pursing a LMGT3 program to remain in the WEC next year but ultimately ruled it out due to the uncertainty of gaining an entry with a non-Hypercar manufacturer.

“When you commit to any sort of program, you need some level of certainty,” he said.

“If you put together the budget and you sign the drivers and you commit to staff and cars and kit and equipment, you want to make sure you know your’e on the grid.

“When you look at the grid for 2024 in the WEC, it’s pretty difficult to see where the space is, and even with the removal of LMP2 now, that hasn’t quite created enough space when you look at the success of Hypercar and where that leaves the GT manufacturers.

“We can anticipate there’s a few GT teams or manufacturers that might think they’re going to be on the grid that might be disappointed.

“It’s difficult for us to come in as a well-known LMP2 team to just say that we’re going to nail our flag to a particular GT manufacturer and be guaranteed an entry.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John