Formula 1 Rumors

Rumor: Why McLaren might be accumulating so many F1 drivers

Posted by AR1 staff

Some are wondering what McLaren is going to do with so many F1 drivers, should they indeed be successful in winning their legal battles over Ganassi IndyCar driver Alex Palou and Alpine F1 Reserve driver Oscar Piastri.

McLaren would have as potential F1 drivers:

  1. Lando Norris – Under Contract Already
  2. Daniel Ricciardo – Under Contract Through 2023
  3. Alex Palou – Will be under contract starting in 2023, for F1, not IndyCar
  4. Oscar Piastri – Will be under contract starting in 2023
  5. Colton Herta – Could be a test driver for McLaren starting in 2023

5 into 2 doesn’t go

Why on earth would a 2-car team like McLaren be pursuing so many very talented drivers for its F1 team. Sitting the bench for 2 or 3 of them is never going to be a happy situation.

Speculation

Michael Andretti still hopes to get his F1 team application to enter the sport in 2024 approved.

If it happens, Andretti has one year to get his car designed, built and a team assembled and a testing program underway. A monumental task.

He also must sign good drivers.

In steps his good friend Zak Brown.

Could Brown be locking in a cadre of good drivers, only to then hand them over to Michael Andretti’s team for 2024?

Andretti cannot sign any drivers until his team is approved, if it is approved. And by then all the good drivers will already be under contract.

But Zak Brown can sign drivers.

This is complete speculation on our part.  We have no inside knowledge that this is what is actually going on.

However, like many others, we sit here scratching our head trying to figure out what the heck McLaren is going to do with all those drivers?

Certainly none of them will want to be farmed out to the McLaren Formula E team, a dying series.

Mark C. reporting for AutoRacing1.com