McLaren Eyeing Next ‘Superstar’ in Driver Development Program

Photo: McLaren

McLaren is looking for the next “superstar” through its refined driver development program according to McLaren Motorsport sporting director Rob Bell.

The British manufacturer, which has expanded its reach in sports car racing with the recent launch of McLaren Trophy America, has established four steps on its GT racing ladder system.

Bell, who retired from full-time racing at the end of last year, is spearheading the initiative.

“Ultimately we’re growing,” he told Sportscar365. “We’re ambitious and when you are growing and ambitious, you need racing drivers. That’s fundamental.

“There’s lots of nuts and bolts in our organization, all equally as important, but actually on track you need racing drivers to drive that forward.

“We’re in a position now where I think it’s fair to say, we haven’t got the resources of some of the others.

“So what we must do and what we’re very much trying to do is create a platform where we see drivers coming into either GT4 or Trophy series in Europe and America, bring those young drivers in that can get our attention, so they’re under our nose.”

Drivers can work their way up from the single-make series in Europe and America to become McLaren Graduate Driver status, such as Tommy Pintos, who was the inaugural Trophy Europe champion in 2023 and is competing in Trophy America this weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The McLaren Junior Pro Driver category is the next tier, followed by full factory driver status.

“We educate them, we help them,” said Bell of the program. “We identify which ones look exciting.

“We do a driver assessment every year where we pick the ones we want to pick or the winners of the Trophy series in the Pro class are guaranteed to do that driver assessment.

“We put them against our best factory guys in an Artura, it could be GT4 or Trophy-spec, and a GT3 car, and we see how they get on.

“We’re just trying to then identify the guys who are pushing for those places but they must come through the McLaren family.

“[However] if someone appears on our radar who is just a superstar, then we can look at that as well.

“For example, Joseph Loake is one of our junior drivers as of this year, and that’s because he tested with one of our teams and the team were like, ‘You’ve got to look at this guy. We think he’s quite special.’

“So we’ve taken that opportunity. There’s a balance but ultimately we want to funnel the drivers who are coming through the sport, we want then to come to our family at McLaren and progress through.

“It’s tough out there, you’ve got to find the sponsorship. That is a thing.

“But if you can do that in a McLaren, like Dean MacDonald, he’s got to the end goal. He’s worked through GT4 to GT3 within McLaren teams and now he’s a full factory driver earning a living out of representing McLaren.

“We’re really trying to push that message.”

Bell said the end goal is to develop the next generation of talent within the McLaren family.

“We want the talent and want to be excited,” he said. “I remember when I was young, I didn’t get it right all the time, but in getting it wrong, I learned what you actually need to do.

“Me being a part of this now, we can polish the rough diamonds per say, and make them a superstar.”

He added: “We don’t just want anyone who signs up to be a McLaren [Junior] and all of a sudden is a factory driver. We’re not looking for that.

“We’re looking for the best people to eventually come through. But we want to make them factory drivers; we actually want that to happen.”