McLaren Racing and Motul have expanded their long-standing technical relationship with a new multi-year partnership that will see the lubricant specialist play a key role in both the team’s Formula 1 campaign and its highly anticipated return to top-flight endurance racing.
The agreement builds on more than a decade of collaboration in GT3 racing and extends Motul’s involvement into two of motorsport’s most demanding arenas: Formula 1 and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Since the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Motul has been supplying the bespoke lubricant used in the gearbox and differential of McLaren’s MCL40. The French company will also develop the engine and transmission lubricants for McLaren’s Hypercar, which is set to make its WEC debut in 2027.
While lubricants rarely receive the same attention as engines or aerodynamics, they can play a crucial role in extracting performance and ensuring reliability.
According to Motul, its engineers spent nine months working alongside McLaren Racing to develop a unique transmission lubricant for the MCL40. More than 40 tests, including tribological analysis, material compatibility assessments and validation work at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, were completed before the final formulation was approved.
The lubricant was designed to reduce friction within the gearbox, operate across extreme temperature ranges, withstand high transmission pressures and maintain performance over thousands of kilometres while protecting mechanical components throughout the season.
Julien Plet, Head of Research and Development at Motul, said the challenge was to improve on an already highly sophisticated product.
“McLaren was already using a very high-performance transmission fluid with an extremely high level of requirements. Our challenge was to go even further: decrease friction losses even more while ensuring lubricant durability over time.”
He added that the formulation had been validated to maintain its performance over several thousand kilometres under Formula 1 conditions and would continue to evolve as the team develops its cars.
The collaboration will become even more significant next year when McLaren returns to the top class of endurance racing.
For the 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship programme, Motul will provide both engine and transmission lubricants for McLaren’s Hypercar. The company will also deploy its Racing Lab, a mobile laboratory that analyses fluid samples throughout race weekends to monitor wear, oxidation, thermal stability and fuel dilution.
The real-time analysis allows engineers to identify potential issues before they become failures while feeding valuable data back into the development of future lubricant technologies.
Motul says the same technology developed and validated under the extreme demands of Formula 1 and endurance racing ultimately benefits the products available to everyday motorists.
“If our products can withstand conditions as demanding as those faced by the top racing teams, we know they meet the highest standards of quality and reliability,” Plet said.
Beyond the technical partnership, both companies say the collaboration reflects a shared philosophy centred on innovation, engineering excellence and continuous performance improvement.
For McLaren, the agreement provides another important piece of the puzzle as it continues to compete in Formula 1 while preparing for one of the biggest projects in the team’s modern history: its return to the highest level of endurance racing in 2027.
