Why McLaren's expanding agenda will benefit its F1 resurgence
In the 1960s and 1970s, McLaren juggled works entries in F1, sportscars and the Indy 500 while building cars for F3 and F2. Now it’s returning to its roots, expanding into IndyCars and Extreme E while continuing its F1 renaissance. There’s talk of Formula E and WEC entries too. But is this all too much, too soon? Stuart Codling talks to the man in charge.
You’d be forgiven for wondering why a grandee team that hadn’t won a grand prix for almost a decade until Daniel Ricciardo’s triumph at Monza is spreading its wings beyond Formula 1. Especially when that team, despite that welcome 1-2 in Italy, is part of a financially troubled group, which has had to make difficult cutbacks – to the extent it now rents the home it spent £300million building.
But with McLaren’s growing involvement in IndyCar, Esports and Extreme E, alongside putative dalliances in Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, there is at least a historical precedent: this is a company rooted in getting stuck in to different racing formulae, even if it hasn’t done that for many years.
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