IndyCar Rumor: Are McLaren’s days in IndyCar numbered?
McLaren supercars will continue to come out of the automaker’s money-losing manufacturing facility in Britain, but it’s now officially owned by a firm based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
–by Mark Cipolloni–
Their goal is to make their supercar business profitable, and their existing IndyCar program could be sacrificed for two sportscar programs because IndyCar racing does NOT align with their production car business.
The new investors want McLaren Racing to enter the GT Category of the World Endurance Championship and IMSA because the cars would a huge resemblance to their street cars.
Their mandate? Make their production car business profitable by better aligning their motorsports business with their production car business.
John Doonan, president of IMSA, who said the quiet part out loud when, unprompted, in his Pre-Race Rolex 24 remarks about the strength of the series said: “It looks like the papaya army plans to join us.”
“Our automotive business, which we work very closely with, is clearly synergistic with sports cars,” Brown told The Associated Press. “McLaren Automotive is in the process of being acquired, so they’re going to become, again, a very healthy organization that wants to go motor racing and we have been for some time under review of sports car racing.
“I find the rules fantastic. The manufacturers have clearly voted in their confidence in the new regulations, and clearly sports car racing is once again a major form of motorsports and definitely has our attention.”
“For us to be ready for 2027, which is as soon as we would enter, we need to make a decision imminently, and I would say things are looking very favorable,” Brown said. “And whether we enter WEC and/or IMSA, that would probably be staggered. And at the same time, we’re always reviewing our existing portfolio.”
“We collectively feel sports car racing is a platform that can really benefit our automotive business, as well as our racing business,” Brown said. “Sports cars is much more about the manufacturer and we at McLaren feel that’s a great area we can work together.”
“When we take decisions on entering new forms of motorsports, we review our existing forms of motorsports,” Brown said. “We are clearly rooted in Formula 1 and always have been, so that program comes first. And we needed to get Formula 1 in a good place, on track and off. Clearly Formula 1 is in a very strong place. We’ll take a look at everything else.”