United to Enlist New Personnel, LMP3 Staff for LMGT3 Effort

United Autosports has been on a recruitment drive to enlist staff with relevant GT3 experience as it prepares to venture into the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 class with McLaren next year, according to team co-owner Richard Dean.

The Anglo-American squad’s bid to field a pair of McLaren 720S GT3 Evos was confirmed on Monday when it was listed as part of the 18-car entry for the new-for-2024 category, joining the likes of Iron Lynx, Akkodis ASP Team, Manthey EMA and TF Sport in the class.

United was selected by McLaren as its representative for the class in October, but the team’s entry was pending approval from the WEC Selection Committee.

Dean expressed “relief and gratitude” at the entry’s acceptance, saying United is now able to “get our sleeves rolled up and get the hard work underway” outlining the team’s recruitment strategy as it prepares to compete full-time in three high-profile championships simultaneously.

“Clearly what we’ve wanted to do is hire some GT specific staff experience staff, particularly with McLaren experience to be able to ensure that we’re not going through a year of learning,” Dean told Sportscar365.

“Just in the same way we’ve done with IMSA by taking on some experienced IMSA staff so that we’re not going over there assuming that LMP2 and IMSA is exactly the same as LMP2 in WEC. We’re going to have a lot of experienced people on the WEC project.

“United have a lot of very good people working on other projects, such as LMP3, that are very keen to get an opportunity in our LMP2 or LMGT3 teams. We will integrate staff across IMSA & WEC, this is normal.”

Dean outlined that the new hires will be joined by staff from United’s existing LMP3 programs to form the LMGT3 group, while its current core of LMP2 personnel that operated the team’s now-defunct LMP2 program in WEC will move across to the U.S. to its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship effort.

“It’s not one group moving from one place to another,” Dean said. “What you’ve got to also look at within the business that we’ve got is a fair bit going on in the other series that are not perhaps quite as high profile as the WEC or our IMSA program.

“So we’re absorbing an awful lot of staff from other projects into both of those.

“Don’t forget the majority of the experienced people on the LMP2 side from WEC will continue on LMP2 and take on the IMSA project, but through our partnership with Jr III out in Charlotte, we’ve not just moved into a new facility for us, but it’s an existing facility that’s been in WeatherTech.

“We’ve got five or six people there who are experienced. So they bolster the IMSA project with our LMP2 experience guys.”

Dean further stated that United’s LMGT3 group would be further supported by staff from McLaren.

“The WEC have made it clear that LMGT3 is not a ‘factory’ series, but there’s a level of manufacturer’s involvement in it with the support and representation,” he said.

“Clearly McLaren GT have a lot of really good quality people that are helping to support us, so yeah, there will be a number of McLaren staff involved in the project at various levels.”

Sato to Act as Pro Driver in No. 95 Car

Dean also confirmed that Japanese driver Marino Sato will serve as the pro driver aboard the No. 95 McLaren, despite being shown as a Silver on the entry list published on Monday.

Sato, who recently completed his first season with the team in ELMS, will be upgraded to Gold as part of a number of driver rating adjustments first published in October. 

However, the Japanese driver is shown as Silver on WEC’s provisional entry list.

Both Dean and a WEC spokesperson separately indicated to Sportscar365 that the rating shown on the initial entry list reflects Sato’s current grading and not his upgrade, which will go into effect on Jan. 1.

Dean revealed that the team has been evaluating multiple Bronze and Silver-rated drivers during a two-day test at Estoril earlier this week that also served as the first rollout for the second McLaren chassis.

“We had the second of our new cars arrive last week, so that was there for a shakedown,” he said.

“All that’s gone really well, so we’ve got those cars pounding around. We’ve got some other drivers there as well that we’re looking at, Silver-grade, Bronze-grade drivers that we’re testing and trying out, so yeah, we’re pushing hard.”

Dean indicated the pair of Bronze-rated drivers that will feature aboard the McLarens will come from outside of United’s current pool of drivers.

“This won’t be a Bronze you’ve previously seen in one of our cars and that’s partially why we’re running these tests at the moment,” he said.