When Formula 1 heads to Malaysia and Singapore this October, one of the most carefully engineered liquids on McLaren’s car won’t be anywhere near the fuel tank. It sits in the gearbox, and the company that brewed it, Motul, runs its Asia Pacific business from right here in Singapore.
On 30 September 2026, Motul and McLaren Racing announced they are widening their technical partnership across F1 and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The star of the announcement is Motul 2714E, a bespoke gear oil for McLaren’s exclusive use. It has been inside the MCL40, McLaren’s 2026 F1 car, since the start of the season.
Why a Gearbox Needs Its Own Oil
An F1 gearbox rattles through gear changes at a pace no road car will ever ask of it. The differential, the part that lets the rear wheels spin at different speeds through a corner, takes that punishment right alongside it. Oil down there has two jobs that pull in opposite directions: cut friction so less power is lost on the way to the tyres, and protect the metal long enough to see the chequered flag.
Motul says 2714E was developed to “optimise mechanical efficiency and transmission system reliability” across Grand Prix conditions. In plain terms, that means more of the power unit’s effort reaching the tarmac and fewer afternoons ending with a car parked on the grass. Don’t expect anyone to pin a lap-time figure on a gear oil, though, because its best race is the one where nobody mentions the gearbox at all.
Nine Months, Two Labs, One Car
Motul’s research and development teams in France and Japan worked alongside McLaren for nine months on the formulation. Together they ran more than 40 tests, moving from pre-selection through tribological testing (the study of friction and wear between moving surfaces) and material compatibility checks. The final validation round took place at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking.
The material compatibility stage is the easiest one to overlook, and arguably the most telling. An oil can be brilliant at slashing friction and still be a disaster if it reacts badly with the seals and components it bathes every lap, so a bespoke fluid gets tuned to one specific transmission. That explains the “Exclusive McLaren Racing use” label on the bottle: 2714E was built for a single gearbox and differential, and nobody else on the grid gets a drop!
Carlo Savoca, Chief Marketing Officer of Motul Asia Pacific, pitched F1 as a proving ground for the whole company. “Every kilometre on track provides valuable technical insights that allow our teams to explore new possibilities in lubricant performance,” he said, adding that Motul intends to bring those learnings “forward into the next generation of Motul technology.” That is the real trade in a deal like this, with McLaren getting a fluid shaped around its car and Motul getting a test bench no laboratory can fully fake.
Small Details, Big Trophies
The tie-up fits neatly with how McLaren talks about its own success. When the MCL39 won the 2025 Constructors’ Championship, team principal Andrea Stella said the team pursued “development in pretty much every single part”, naming front suspension, cooling and tyre interaction alongside the aerodynamics that usually grab the headlines. Anyone who watched Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri trade blows through the opening rounds of 2025 saw where that approach led.
Stella has pointed to another reason the quiet details matter. F1 rations how much wind tunnel and computer simulation time teams can use, and the more successful a team becomes, the smaller its allowance. When aero testing is capped like that, every area that can be improved away from the wind tunnel is worth chasing, and a partner that turns up with its own labs and its own 40-test programme makes that chase a lot easier.
Next Stop: Hypercars
2714E is half of the news. From the 2027 season, Motul plans to supply engine and transmission lubricants for McLaren’s WEC Hypercar programme, Hypercar being the endurance championship’s top class. It will provide technical collaboration as the team prepares for its debut too, though as with any programme more than a year away, treat the timing as the companies’ plan rather than a finished fact.
Endurance racing is familiar ground for both sides. Motul’s relationship with the 24 Hours of Le Mans dates back to 1954, it became Official Lubricant Partner of the WEC and Le Mans in 2016, and the company credits its 300V as the world’s first fully synthetic multigrade lubricant. McLaren won Le Mans at its first attempt, and the pair already have more than ten years of collaboration across GT3 programmes behind them.
The cleverest part of the endurance deal is the Racing Lab, a mobile laboratory that analyses fluid samples for wear, oxidation, thermal stability and fuel dilution. Think of it as a blood test for a race car: draw a sample of used oil and engineers can read what is happening inside the engine without pulling it apart. Over a race that runs for 24 hours, knowing that early is worth an awful lot.
For Motul, the Racing Lab is how track experience turns into better products. Every sample tells its chemists something about how a fluid behaves under stress, and that knowledge flows back into the formulations it sells beyond the paddock.
What to Watch For This October
McLaren’s MCL40 heads to the Malaysian and Singapore rounds this October with 2714E on board, and Savoca named the Singapore Grand Prix as a moment Motul is looking forward to seeing the partnership play out on track. When you watch those gear changes flicker past, spare a thought for the nine months of chemistry keeping them clean. Fans who remember the 2024 night race at Marina Bay know how quickly a reliability hiccup can reshape a weekend.
The shiny parts of an F1 car get the camera time, yet the fluid in a gearbox can decide whether a driver finishes at all. This partnership is a rare look at that unseen layer, and it is heading next for the 24-hour grind of Hypercar racing. Keep up with the build-up to 2027 and Motul’s latest racing tech on Motul’s Singapore site, and follow the MCL40’s run through Malaysia and Singapore on McLaren Racing!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Motul.
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