Although McLaren issued a statement on Monday denying recent reports of the sale to Audi, it did not rule out a possible link between the two companies.
Citing two sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Audi discussed a collaboration with McLaren at its most recent board meeting.
In addition, Audi’s decision will ultimately depend on Formula 1 proceeding with a synthetic fuel launch plan by 2026 as well as McLaren’s progress in electrifying its supercars, one of the sources told Reuters.
Upon request, Audi informed Reuters that it was open to cooperation opportunities, but did not name a specific partner.
BMW was also named as interested in McLaren’s supercars division in these earlier reports, with Audi focusing only on the McLaren F1 team, although BMW denied any interest in McLaren’s supercars division in a statement to Reuters.
2022 Audi R8
McLaren, majority-owned by the Bahrain State Fund, has had financial problems since the pandemic began. The company has laid off employees and sold key assets, including its famous Woking headquarters and McLaren Applied technology business, as well as a stake in the F1 team. McLaren has also made additional investments from the governments of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
At the same time, there was a lot of noise that the Volkswagen parent company of Audi wanted to get into F1, if only as an engine supplier. It is expected that new aggregate rules to be introduced by Formula 1 in 2026 will make it easier for additional aggregate suppliers to enter the sport, with the VW Group reportedly participating in both Audi and Porsche is interested.
According to previous reports, the VW group has had exploratory talks with Red Bull Racing, McLaren and Williams about potential aggregate deals.
McLaren currently uses an engine from Mercedes-Benz AMG, but the team already has a connection with the VW group. The current team boss Andreas Seidl was previously head of the motorsport department at Porsche and headed the successful LMP1 program of the car manufacturer in the endurance world championship. We should also point out that current F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali was previously head of the VW Group’s Lamborghini brand.
Should a deal be concluded in the future, there will also be synergies between the super sports car division of McLaren and the various super sports car brands of the VW Group. The list includes Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Porsche.
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