United Autosports, founded by ex-Formula 3000 and endurance racer Richard Dean and current McLaren boss Zak Brown in 2009, was initially intended to be a GT3 racing team. However, it has grown to become one of the leading privateers in international motorsport. The team boasts an impressive list of achievements, including winning the 2019-20 World Endurance LMP2 title and class success in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Rise of United Autosports
United Autosports now employs 60 full-time staff at its 62,000sq ft Wakefield headquarters and competes in various series, including Andretti’s Extreme E and the Australian Supercars as a part-owner in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford squad. The team has also restored and prepared historic machinery, including McLaren boss Zak Brown’s personal collection.
According to Richard Dean, “Race wins are so important for the survival of your business. If you’re winning, you’re popular and the phone’s ringing. You need the best drivers and best budgets to win, but how do you get those if you’re not already winning? The other parts of the business allow you to do a better job and financially give you a lot more stability.”
The team’s expansion was catalysed by the arrival of LMP3, which United Autosports decided to do with Ligier, and became the UK agent for Ligier company owners Pierre and Jacques Nicolet. The team won both the LMP3 teams’ and drivers’ titles in the 2016 European Le Mans Series, which allowed United Autosports to win a Le Mans entry.
Success in LMP2
United Autosports’ success in LMP2 has brought it into the spotlight. After finding it increasingly difficult to take on the ORECA hordes with the Ligier, the team switched to the ORECA 07 during 2019 and immediately became more of a threat. The team won the 2019-20 World Endurance ‘superseason,’ with Albuquerque, Hanson, and Di Resta winning LMP2 in four of the eight rounds to take the title in a campaign topped by class victory at the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Dean said, “Le Mans takes some beating. It’s addictive; we want to win it again. It’s annoying me that we haven’t so we are having a big push.”
The Wider Activities of United Autosports
United Autosports is no longer just a race team. It is a motorsport business that restores and prepares historic machinery, including Brown’s personal collection. The team also has its own carbon shop for repairs on LMP2 and LMP3 cars, an in-house wrapper, and is dabbling in classic road-car restorations. Its wider activities provide financial stability, which allows the team to take a view on a project, invest up front, and remain competitive.
The Future of United Autosports
Dean’s ambition is to win Le Mans, a world championship, or the IMSA series outright. The arrival of Hypercars and the lower-cost LMDh route into the top class has brought the potential of new manufacturer deals or running a car as a privateer, as Jota, JDC-Miller, and Proton will be doing with their Porsche 963s.
United Autosports already had long-time Williams manager Dickie Stanford and Charlie Kemp, whose successful HHC Motorsport operation joined United for 2021 and immediately took European GT4 title success, and is still attracting talent. Its new technical director is ex-McLaren and Toyota man Jakob Andreasen. Dean admits that he has been speaking with “a few manufacturers” since 2019 and has helped some with studies.
Dean said, “We’re here and available and we’re continuing to talk. We’ve got pretty close, but then you get people like Penske and AF Corse and WRT, there’s a lot of tough competition. And a lot of them have relationships with manufacturers, like Porsche and Penske, AF Corse and Ferrari, Rahal and BMW. They’re difficult to break down and get a foot in the door.”
United Autosports’ priority is a factory programme, but if that is not possible, then they have to look at every option. Dean is not so keen to go down the privateer route but hasn’t ruled it out.
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