McLaren, Genesis Both Postpone Their IMSA Arrivals - Again

Coming on the heels of Acura announcing that they're ending their prototype support in IMSA after years of participation, we've gotten a double-dose of non-committal reassessments of the future for two incoming (we think??) manufacturers' - McLaren and Genesis.

In separate news drops that happened to come just days apart from each other, the potential arrival of both of those brands to North America has now become even cloudier, with the program director heads for both programs - Cyril Abiteboul of Genesis and Zak Brown of McLaren - stating, quite frankly, that given all current and future circumstances, the debuts of their respective brands to the WeatherTech Championship series is simply not coming anytime soon.

Starting with Genesis, Abiteboul told SportsCar365.com that along with all of the other logistical and R&D obstacles that come with properly building out a racing program from the ground-up, the delay to the 2026 World Endurance Championship season could see Genesis now pass completely on the 2027 IMSA WeatherTech Championship season due to the lack of accrued data from miles logged on track, with the backend of the WEC season now adjusted with the 1812km of Qatar now taking place in October. 

The previous non-confirmed expectation was a mid-season, endurance-event-only shortened campaign, with their debut coming at Watkins Glen 2027.

“The first thing we wanted to do is absolutely to secure our entry in WEC in terms of performance, in terms of readiness, in terms of reliability,” Abiteboul told Sportscar365. “Unfortunately, I guess it’s another side effect of Qatar [date moving], we’ve also postponed our final decision on IMSA. We’re still very much keen on racing in IMSA, but we want to get it right here in WEC first before expanding."

Abiteboul continued, saying, “...we’re still a very young team, we’re still a very small team also – so focus, good execution, quality over quantity and, when we are ready, we will make the decision to expand into IMSA."

The Genesis program is taking the familiar path of other racing programs that opt to take things slow with the development of their $50+ million prototype operation rather than rushing (in their minds) into another series across the globe, which comes with more costs, more logistical planning, more R&D, more everything.

This leads now into what Zak Brown dropped on all of our heads on Tuesday, again speaking to SportsCar365.com in a separate interview, saying that with the larger-than-anticipated costs, development of the car, existing and future commitments already given to both IndyCar and Formula 1, AND still being unsure of who would actually run the program Stateside (Arrow McLaren or United Autosports) we could see McLaren and the MCL-HY pass completely on joining the IMSA grid until the new ruleset and regulations are configured for the 2030 season.

“If we raced IMSA, we’re not sure yet how we would do that,” Brown said. "..if we were to do it in ’28, you’ve got the new Indy car coming then. If you got into a scenario where McLaren was doing it...that’s a lot of stress on the system," Brown continued, saying "Then if you go to ’29, you get into it with the new rules coming out for 2030, you also run up, depending on what the rules are, it could be expensive to [run to] the old rules for one year."

Now, Zak Brown is an expert at politicking and saying what's on his mind usually without a filter attached to it. Brown is very open when he speaks in regards to what he's looking to obtain for his team, drivers, brand, etc, essentially saying 'Hey we're happy to commit to the cause if we have the financial backing that comes with it.' Additional comments from Brown also drew a direct line in the sand to the current and future conversations that will take place regarding what path the FIA, ACO and any number of manufacturers' at the time ultimately decide upon - will it be a continuation of the LMDh regulations, or LMH regulations? Brown's opinion? It's LMDh or nothing.

"Get rid of LMH, [base it on] LMDh and then I think as little change as possible,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to see anything that’s more expensive because I think it’s more expensive than I anticipated. From what it was initially presented five years ago, it’s doubled [in cost]."

photo via dailysportscar.com

Now - what does IMSA look like next season, and in 2028? If we're going down the doom-and-gloom path, we could be looking at a reduced GTP class with just Cadillac, BMW and Aston Martin participating, as Porsche's future in North America is absolutely still on shaky ground following their departure from the WEC and their continued struggling global automotive sales. Could Ford be in the mix for 2028? The Blue Oval is another newcomer having already stated that a WEC debut in 2027 is priority, and that a blueprint to race in North America is currently unconfirmed.

In this new era of prototypes and high-level endurance racing, it's been proven out through these last four years that racing on the global stage is the desired starting target for these new manufacturers', and that the insane gravitational pull of racing and winning at Le Mans supplants all other goals; it's the ultimate prize that McLaren, Ford and all the rest lead with when laying out their ambitions for undertaking these massive projects. To no fault of IMSA and how they do business, they just simply don't have anything like Le Mans to combat against when these brands start building out their programs, and even when putting out the angle of  'all miles logged on track is good, no data is bad data' it just hasn't been enough to lure these guys to North America before or during their global rollouts begin.