McLaren LMGT3 EVO at the 8 Hours of Bahrain
Yesterday, the #59 and #95 McLaren LMGT3 EVOs wrapped up the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship with a double top ten finish, taking P6 (#59) and P8 (#95) in the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
From the podium in Sao Paulo to a historic front row lock out in Bahrain - with nine top 10 finishes and four top five results along the way - it marks the end of a monumental debut season, which has established the newly formed McLaren Automotive programme as a true contender on the LMGT3 world stage.
The highlight of the weekend came on Friday, when United Autosports became the first LMGT3 team to secure P1 and P2 on the grid in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Josh Caygill of the #95 McLaren dominated the afternoon, posting the fastest time in both Qualifying and Hyperpole, and celebrating his first pole position of the season with James Cottingham backing it up with P2 in the sister #59.
Josh Caygill takes McLaren pole position for the 8 Hours of Bahrain
Come race day, the McLaren duo had a clean start with Caygill leading the 18-strong LMGT3 grid off the line. In the sister #59, Cottingham did a great job managing his tyres in the first hour and, when Caygill started to struggle, overtook safely for the lead to maintain track position for the United Autosports crew.
Over the next five hours, the #59 McLaren ran consistently in the top two, with solid drives from Cottingham, Nicolas Costa and Gregoire Saucy. Sadly, however, the crew’s bad luck streak with Safety Car timing reared its head once again, with a VSC (Virtual Safety Car) dropping the team to P5 and bunching up the pack at a critical point for tyre strategy.
Struggling for grip with double stint fronts and without radio comms, Costa did his best to hold on to P5 but dropped a couple of positions in a thrilling burst of LMGT3 racing after the restart. Saucy took over for the final dash, slowed by a longer-than-planned pit stop caused by a technical issue with the wheel nut retainer, ultimately crossing the line P6 when a podium had looked so promising.
Meanwhile, for the #95, the opening half of the race was uneventful, but for the most part they maintained their place in the top 10. The VSC also fell badly for the #95 crew, who came out of the pits one lap down as a result. As darkness fell, however, the #95 unlocked extra pace which allowed Marino Sato to get back on the lead lap, stationing the Japanese driver in P13 with half an hour to go.
Sato started the charge with four new tyres, storming from P13 to P8 in 20 minutes – an epic run at the end of a triple stint, which secured a final haul of championship points for the #95 Sao Paulo podium placers.
That’s a wrap for racing this season. We’ll be back in January for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. In the meantime, stay up to date with the team on social @unitedautosports.
James Cottingham, Nicolas Costa and Gregoire Saucy
#59 McLaren LMGT3 EVO
QUALI P2 | RACE P6 | CHAMP P9
James Cottingham: “We had a super solid Qualifying, so Josh [Caygill] and I just had to make sure we controlled the race from the start. We had lots of chats about managing tyres, so I was super careful … I used my historic racing background to be as smooth as possible and it paid off, because from halfway through the first stint I had more pace than everyone else. I made the move for the lead because I could see that Josh [Caygill] was struggling and we were under pressure from behind. Then I got my head down and I really enjoyed it. It was really tough! Temperature-wise, it wasn’t as bad as COTA or Fuji but over a double stint it was still very difficult. And then my third stint was much nicer in the dark – I really enjoyed that and was pleased with my pace. It was another shoulda, woulda, coulda. As a car, we have been consistently clean, fast and up there … but we’ve just had so much bad luck this year with Safety Cars and things like that. I can’t really explain how we ended up where we ended up, and not on the podium because it looked like a dead cert. But that seems to be the way with these races, and I just think it’s gone against us this year too many times. If we can have another crack next year, I think we’ll put it right. And for me personally as a reflection on the season, I can’t believe I’ve just done a world championship when this time three years ago I’d only driven a GT car twice. It’s a huge achievement … and to race at Le Mans, which was a lifetime achievement which, in my early 30s, I thought had disappeared. I’m still coming back down to earth."
Nicolas Costa: “It was an eventful race. We definitely had the pace, especially when the sun was out on new tyres. We had a lot of speed, but I think the others had more in their pocket when it came to tyre deg. I tried to fight as much as I could in the restart but it was tough on the double stint tyres and without radio comms. But there are so many positives – we were consistently fighting for the podium in yet another race. We just needed Lady Luck on our side. Again, we had a VSC that wasn’t in our favour, bunching everybody up again. If it had fallen our way, we would have been on the podium. But we can only keep looking forward and working hard. It has been an absolute pleasure this season, and a dream come true. I’ve learned so much, grown so much … and ticked a lot of boxes in motorsport racing! It’s been a blast. I think we deserved more … we have had the potential to win multiple races this season … but sometimes things happen that are outside your control.”
Gregoire Saucy: “We had a bit of bad luck with the VSC today, because the podium was nearly ours again! The whole #59 crew was pushing for it. I want to say thank you to all the team, my co-drivers James and Nicolas, because the job was mega today and all through the year. It has been a pleasure to work with everyone.”
#95 crew on pole position for 8 Hours of Bahrain
#95 McLaren LMGT3 EVO
QUALI P1 | RACE P8 | CHAMP P14
Josh Caygill: “Quali was a dream come true. Pole position in a world championship … I’m really honoured, it’s not something that happens to everybody. I do the lap and get the glory but I’m just a small piece of it. Xavi my race engineer and all the team work their socks off to give me the tools to do it, and Marino puts so many hours into coaching me at the track and on the simulator when we’re between events – so a big thank you to him. The race start was promising but the tyres fell off near the end of my stint. The margins round here for being in the window for the tyres is so small. We went down fighting! It’s not where we want to be, but we can all be proud of how far the whole project has come this season. Super proud to be a part of it, huge thanks to Richard [Dean] for his trust. Let’s see what the future brings.”
Nico Pino: “Last race of the season … it was a very tricky one. We started in a great position with strong pace but we quickly started falling off. One of the main things we had to worry about was tyre degradation, which hit us hard throughout. There were many different strategies in play but in our case, it didn’t play out. But it’s been an incredible season with the team – a lot of learnings for me, as my first season in a GT. It’s just a shame we couldn’t complete what we started on Friday.”
Marino Sato: “Josh did a really good job to put our car on the pole. In the race, it was a shame we couldn’t convert that into a good result but I think we did everything we could. We were a bit unlucky at some point that we lost a lap, but we managed to get it back on track – we were lucky enough to have another Safety Car that put us back in the pack. From then on, we had decent pace. I really enjoyed overtaking those cars in the final half hour – there were some good moves. It’s just a shame because the team deserved a better result.”
MANAGEMENT
Richard Dean, CEO United Autosports: “At the end of our first full LMGT3 season in the WEC as racing partners of McLaren, we should be very proud. I’d argue that we are one of, if not the team, that has made the most progress from the season opener in Qatar to the finale in Bahrain, with high points along the way including the podium in Sao Paulo and pole position in Bahrain, proving our ultimate pace with the 1-2 in Hyperpole. I cannot thank the team enough. We are lucky to have so many passionate and talented people dedicating hours upon hours of time, effort and skill into driving this project forward – and I will never take that for granted. I also want to recognise the efforts of our drivers who have played a key role in the development of the programme both on and off track. They’ve been working hard behind the scenes, which, once again, demonstrates the very real belief in this project and our potential on the world stage. I for one am excited to see what the future holds.”
Mick McDonagh, McLaren Automotive Director of MSO and Motorsport: “Once again we’ve demonstrated the speed of our car and made a bit of WEC history along the way. My thanks to every single member of the United Autosports team for all their hard work this season, and to our internal team for helping to bring this project to fruition in such a short timeframe. Together we’ve more than proved we can be competitive on this grid.
“We’ve had a really positive first year in the championship, taking two pole positions [Bahrain with United Autosports, and Le Mans with Inception Racing] and a podium finish but the job isn’t done, and we will continue to work towards achieving the goal we all have of winning.”