McLaren name set to disappear from Formula E

The McLaren name looks set to disappear from Formula E next year with a new-look, team name and fresh investment needed for the entry to continue into the Gen4 era from the end of 2026 onwards.

The Race learned at the Jeddah E-Prix in February that McLaren CEO Zak Brown gave notice to team principal of the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team, Ian James, that it would not continue into Gen4 and that alternative commercial, naming and manufacturer partnerships would need to be sourced.

The Formula E team is known to be already putting together a fresh package with a registered manufacturer and also talking to key potential investment groups to continue for Gen4.

The McLaren FE team was created from the previous Mercedes EQ entry in 2022 and entered the Gen3 era with majority backing from Saudi Arabian ‘future city’ initiative NEOM.

That structure also involved an agreement for the entire Gen3 rules-set with Nissan, which is the manufacturer partner for the team, supplying the powertrain.

The deal with title partner NEOM is known to have been until 2026 with an option to continue for a further four years. It is believed that option will not be taken up, which in turn has led McLaren to switch focus to a Le Mans hypercar programme.

Fuller details on that project will be forthcoming at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, and this is expected to include news that outgoing Jaguar FE team principal, James Barclay, will head up the McLaren sportscar project from 2026 onwards.

Barclay and James are close colleagues and friends in the Formula E paddock, and it appears that an endorsement of sorts for Barclay to take that role came from James, who was believed to have once been in a position to expand his role within McLaren to a fuller endurance racing role.

He currently holds a concurrent customer sportscar role with his Formula E commitments.

News that the Formula E team needs fresh investors and a restructuring for Gen4 without the McLaren name will mean James concentrates on trying to achieve a fourth epoch of the team/licence, which began as HWA Racelab in 2018.

The specific licence of the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team is owned by McLaren Electric Racing Ltd, which lists James and McLaren CEO Brown as two of the four directors of the company.

It is believed that James has been scouting for new investors since the start of 2025 with the ultimate aim of him heading up a new-look team in readiness for the 2026-27 season, the first of the Gen4 era.

What new look could be for Gen4

The NEOM McLaren Formula E Team is presently speaking to all registered manufacturers for the Gen4 period and is expected to conclude a deal by the end of May.

The Race understands that James is confident the team can head into this rules set largely intact - with new investors and a strong manufacturer tie-up.

Although the team itself would not comment this week when approached about the changes, James did speak with The Race in Miami earlier this month and said that he believed Formula E was in a strong position from a manufacturer standpoint and that the customer team model was still one to pursue.

“If I take a look at where we stand today on the manufacturer side of things, the fact that in Gen4 we've got Nissan, Porsche, Jaguar, Yamaha now together with Lola all signed up - I'd be very surprised if Stellantis didn't formally announce something in the not-too-distant future - that as a championship, together with 11 teams, is actually quite a healthy position to be in," James said.

“But we now need to look at all the other elements of it and make sure they're equally as healthy so that the way that we structure the revenue proposition for both the investors and for the teams themselves works. Then I think it's all to play for.”

James and the team initially found it difficult to adapt to metamorphosing from a full manufacturer entity as Mercedes to a customer entrant in its McLaren era.

The cost-cap was a prime indicator of this with senior figures at the team known to have been frustrated with being unable to be as in charge of their own technical and development destiny as they were once used to and as much as they wished.

These topics, as well as Brown (above) known to be personally lukewarm on electric motorsport and favouring a full factory crack at Le Mans and joining the global manufacturer endurance racing boom, has meant the team that's now been HWA, Mercedes and McLaren needs to pivot and plan ahead for major change again from the end of 2026 onwards.