McLaren Racing has added Leonardo Fornaroli to the driver group for its first FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar season in 2027.
The reigning FIA Formula 2 champion will race the McLaren MCL-HY in WEC, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He joins Mikkel Jensen, Alex Lynn and Laurens Vanthoor among the drivers confirmed so far. McLaren has not yet published the final car-by-car allocation, any additional drivers or a complete testing programme.
Fornaroli will also continue as a reserve driver for McLaren’s Formula 1 team. The combined role makes the appointment part of the group’s cross-series driver-development structure rather than a standalone endurance contract. McLaren said his F1 reserve work in 2026 followed his move into the McLaren Driver Development Programme.
The 21-year-old won consecutive Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in 2024 and 2025. His 2027 campaign will be his first in WEC, placing a driver developed through single-seaters alongside team-mates with established sports-car experience.
McLaren’s return to the top class of endurance racing creates a new technical and operational programme around the MCL-HY. The Fornaroli appointment confirms another part of its sporting structure, but the announcement does not disclose contract duration, compensation, testing mileage or the commercial terms connecting the F1 reserve and WEC roles.
McLaren describes the move as evidence of the strength of its young-driver pathway. That is the company’s assessment; the programme’s competitive impact cannot be measured before the 2027 season begins.
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