“I’d like to say it was mapped out and planned, but it wasn’t. We only intended to get a race trailer and GT3 Audi, and have some fun. I sometimes wonder how we ended up here!”
Ex-Formula 3000 and endurance racer Richard Dean is pretty honest about the modest origins of the United Autosports squad he set up with current McLaren boss Zak Brown in 2009. It may only have been intended to allow them to race in GT3, but the team must now be regarded as one of the leading privateers in international motorsport.
The 2019-20 World Endurance LMP2 title and class success in the Le Mans 24 Hours top its list of achievements, and United currently sits atop the WEC LMP2 points table after a 1-2 in Portugal earlier this month, against heavyweights WRT and Prema as well as reigning class champion Jota.
United currently employs 60 full-time members of staff (which increases to almost 150 at major events) at its impressive 62,000sq ft Wakefield headquarters, where it has been based for nearly four years, and competes in multiple series. It has an Extreme E involvement with Andretti, plus Australian Supercars as a part-owner in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford squad, and regularly competes in the IMSA SportsCar series.
It’s also much more than just a race team – it restores and prepares historic machinery, including Brown’s personal collection, has its own carbon shop for repairs on LMP2 and LMP3 cars, an in-house wrapper, and is dabbling in classic road-car restorations.
“There are so many very strong teams and really good people in motorsport,” says Dean. “It’s a tough place to stand out. 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.”
United was a consistent frontrunner in GT competition, particularly in Britain, and dabbled in the British Touring Car Championship, but Dean believes the catalyst for the team’s expansion was the arrival of LMP3 – and being at the right place at the right time.
“We decided to do LMP3 with Ligier, and Ligier was the car to have,” explains Dean, whose old unit was opposite Ginetta, so he had an early introduction to LMP3.
Success came quickly. United took both the LMP3 teams’ and drivers’ (Alex Brundle, Christian England and Mike Guasch) titles in the 2016 European Le Mans Series. It also made an important off-track move.
“We were having success but there was also significant investment from [Ligier company owners] Pierre and Jacques Nicolet,” explains Dean. “LMP3 took off and they had a lot of enquiries from the UK. It was clear they didn’t have a UK agent and weren’t set up to support so many customers, so I just asked, ‘How about we be the UK agent?’
“That was the trigger and realisation that race teams are one thing, but you can complement the business with a motorsport-related product. Suddenly, if you’re having a bad race result you’ve still got some income and stability from other streams of motorsport.”
The ELMS success was key because it meant United won a Le Mans entry, “which we thought was a good idea”. It took a Ligier JSP217 and had a faultless run to fourth in LMP2 and fifth overall in 2017, the same year United again did the LMP3 ELMS double. It also stepped into LMP2 in the same series and scored two victories, including first time out at Silverstone with Filipe Albuquerque, Will Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer.
"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" Richard Dean
“We won LMP2 and LMP3 on the same day – it was a dream start,” says Dean, who believes LMP3 deserves more credit. “It’s an incredible series, incredibly affordable – €249,000 ready to go to the track. It’s a high level of performance, incredibly safe, and goes to great tracks. Look at how many drivers and teams have come through that into LMP2. It was definitely the springboard for us.”
It’s United’s success in LMP2 that has grabbed attention. After finding it increasingly difficult to take on the ORECA hordes with the Ligier, notwithstanding an Asian Le Mans Series title in 2018-19, United switched to the ORECA 07 during 2019 and immediately became more of a threat.
The 2019-20 World Endurance ‘superseason’ was perhaps United’s biggest highlight so far. Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Paul di Resta won 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.
“Le Mans takes some beating,” enthuses Dean. “It’s addictive; we want to win it again. It’s annoying me that we haven’t so we are having a big push.
“With regards to the historics side of the business, people are more inclined to give us a restoration project because we’ve won the WEC and Le Mans. It improves your credentials and helps credibility. It helps everywhere.”
Remarkably, United also took ELMS title doubles in LMP2 and LMP3 – the only team ever to have done so – in 2020. Since then, the quality of LMP2 competition has kept increasing.
GT3 king WRT stole the show in 2021, while single-seater powerhouse Prema arrived last year. This season the Signatech team is back for one campaign before returning to the top class with Alpine. Dean believes such opposition is a positive, even if it means scoring eight consecutive LMP2 wins across the ELMS and WEC, as United did in 2019-20, is less likely.
“We perhaps raised the level when we moved to ORECA and had a dominant season, then WRT and Prema came in and continued to raise the level,” he says. “WRT are winning everything in GT3 and have been for a number of years, Prema have been winning everything in single-seaters, so it’s great to measure yourself against them. We’ve won a race every year we’ve been in LMP2. Winning Sebring in 2022 against these teams makes it all the more rewarding.
Friday favourite: Richard Dean picks his top team-mate
“We’ve all got this ambition to go another step, and the more these teams add credibility to the series the more seriously people can take you – you’ve been tested against the very best.”
Such competition also brings new demands, which is where the added financial security of UA’s wider activities can again help.
“We don’t really consider ourselves as just a race team now, we’re a motorsport business,” explains Dean, who points to the benefits of shared overheads, such as buildings and staff, across different projects. “Motorsport moves quickly all the time and there are always new things to invest in, new regulations etc. You’ve got to find a way to get budget.
“We have several race teams, they are our flagships and we’re all still racers. A lot of who we employ are here to make the cars go faster and win races, so when they are knocking on your office door saying, ‘If we invest in this – another day of testing, another day on a seven-post rig, buy the latest simulation software…’, it’s very hard to say no. You’ve got to find a way of funding it. Having this motorsport business allows us to take a view on a project, invest up front and remain competitive.”
LMP2 used to be as high as a privateer could go and undoubtedly helped the team’s profile, but Dean now has his sights on the next step. 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 after Le Mans Proton will be doing with their Porsche 963s.
“To win Le Mans, a world championship or the IMSA series outright is the ambition,” asserts Dean. “From a business perspective, to enter a multi-year agreement to run or be involved with a factory programme – it’s got to be a goal. Once you’ve done a factory deal you’re probably more likely to get another one or extension and you can invest more into your people and the business, which makes you even stronger.”
Dean admits that he has been speaking with “a few manufacturers” since 2019 and has helped some with studies: “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.”
Dean is not so keen to go down the privateer route but hasn’t ruled it out.
“If you could fund it and beat Penske you’d definitely get attention, but those two things are pretty big obstacles,” he points out. “It’s interesting to see if Jota can go and compete – that’s a good team that has access to the right equipment.
"It’s an exciting time to be in sportscars and Le Mans is only going to get bigger. We’re trying to make ourselves factory programme-ready" Richard Dean
“The priority is a factory programme, but if you can’t do it that way then you’ve got to look at every option. It’s not something we’re pursuing seriously at the moment – the privateer approach. We’re watching with interest.”
In the meantime, the build-up continues. 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. He joined the day after last year’s Fuji WEC round.
“We’ve challenged Jakob with raising ourselves to the task of the new competition and making ourselves factory-ready, ensuring we have the latest tools and technology,” says Dean. “That’s a big investment for us, a man of his level and ability.
“He’s here not just to make the cars go faster but to help structure the team and how we manage this number of people effectively. Jakob is one of many new appointments and structures we’re putting in place. When you start getting bigger and bigger, you enter new ground.
“There’s been exciting racing in LMP2, you’ve got to hope that the racing is going to be close in the top class. It’s an exciting time to be in sportscars and Le Mans is only going to get bigger. We’re trying to make ourselves factory programme-ready.”
Helping to find the next British stars
Last year was United Autosports’ first official involvement with the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, running the LMP3 Ligier that provides a different challenge for the British single-seater talents.
Wayne Boyd was on benchmark driving duties and the team provided the judges with feedback on eventual winner Luke Browning, Ollie Bearman, Jamie Chadwick and Louis Foster. Along with the data from the MotorSport Vision-run Formula 2 and Beechdean Motorsport GT3 Aston Martin, the running provides the meat of the assessment.
“Ligier had asked before but we couldn’t do it because the tests clashed with Portimao ELMS, so Ligier did it themselves,” says Richard Dean. “But they’re not really into operating a car so they asked me again.”
Both Dean and Charlie Kemp, who oversaw the car at the Silverstone tests, have worked with many young drivers in various series over the years – from Formula Ford to Ginetta Junior – so had a keen interest in the process led by ex-Formula 1 racer Derek Warwick.
“I’ve known Derek forever and it was just an easy process and enjoyable,” says Dean. “So many people at United have worked with young drivers. My JLR days when we ran Justin Wilson and Dan Wheldon, all these drivers that had been nominated in the past.
“We’ve been through that process from the other side and we know how important it is for those drivers and motorsport. It’s a nice thing to do and see it from a different perspective. All through my career in motor racing the Autosport Awards has been the motorsport event of the year worldwide and the young driver Award has been so crucial, so it was nice to play a part in it.”
