Brown is a busy man, as the CEO of the papaya liveried machines in Formula 1, IndyCar, and from 2027 the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), as well as the Team Principal of United Autosports.
With the McLaren United AS program now on the horizon, things have started to get moving on the Hypercar build.
Brown admitted in a press conference attended by Speedcafe that both his F1 stars, including Aussie Oscar Piastri are interested in competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“I don’t think they could be in the Hypercar program (full time), he said. “I’ve spoken with both of them about Le Mans. They would (both) like to do Le Mans one of these days.”
This year, the French endurance classic clashed with the Canadian Grand Prix on the same weekend, while the Indianapolis 500 regularly conflicts with the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.
Next year, Le Mans will clash with the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix on the weekend of June 13-14.
It means the likelihood of Piastri or Norris ever competing at Le Mans while also being full-time Formula 1 drivers is slim.
The most recent instance of an active Formula 1 driver racing at Le Mans was Nico Hulkenberg, who won Le Mans with Porsche in 2015 while racing in Formula 1 with Force India.
Brown said that with calendars ever-growing, it is potentially going to be a more common issue going forward.
“These schedules are hard, right? With the expanded schedules of all the racing series, and then the knock-on effect of, if you move that date, that date might work, but then it has a knock-on effect to another,” Brown said.
“I wouldn’t want to be the person responsible for the calendars.
“I think Formula 1 will do everything they can to not conflict with Le Mans. Obviously, it now conflicts with Indy next year, but I think that’ll only be one of every five years, from my understanding.
“I think they’ll try and avoid a conflict. But me calling Stefano (Domenicali, F1 CEO) saying, ‘I really want to be in Le Mans and Montreal, please don’t make them conflict’, it probably doesn’t hold much weight.”
In terms of a full-time driver line-up, Brown said they are beginning to look through suitable candidates from a whole host of backgrounds, from promoting from within, looking at free agents, or poaching from other brands.
“All the above, as far as looking at what are the roster of drivers out there look like, as opposed to picking one,” he said.
When asked if he will run two or three drivers per car, he answered. “Still discussing what’s the optimum way to go racing, and that’s one of the things under consideration.”
The McLaren United AS team are also soon to start selecting development drivers, with the car set to make its test debut early in 2026.
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