Few automobile collaborations were as special as the BMW V12-powered McLaren F1 of the 1990s, the iconic super sports car that still bears the title for the fastest production car with a naturally aspirated engine. In 2015, some rumors surfaced that the companies were about to sign a deal for a jointly developed supercar project with a mid-engined V8 layout, but it never happened.
Fast forward to November 2021, one reliable source claims BMW and McLaren could work together again, but in a more permanent way. German magazine Automobilwoche, an extension of Automotive News, claims the Bavarian brand is interested in buying McLaren Automotive, the road car division of the Woking-based brand.
Sources familiar with the matter have told Automobilwoche that high-ranking BMW officials will soon be negotiating with the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (“Mumtalakat”), which represents the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain. It effectively controls McLaren by owning 62.55% of McLaren Group Limited.
McLaren F1 – Photos by McLaren Media
According to the same report, the Volkswagen Group’s Audi luxury division, which took control of Bentley earlier this year, is interested in acquiring McLaren’s Formula 1 unit. Both BMW and Audi have been contacted by the media but have not yet responded. It’s a Sunday after all, but hopefully next week the spokesmen for the two German luxury brands will respond to inquiries with something other than the usual “no comment”.
It’s worth noting that McLaren has been struggling financially for a while, and it goes without saying that 2020 was an especially bad year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sales plummeted from 4,662 cars shipped in 2019 to just 1,659 units, causing a massive loss of more than $ 900 million for 2020. It received a short-term loan from the National Bank of Bahrain, but that wasn’t enough to get it back on its feet.
Not only did it have to sell a stake in the F1 racing team, it even had to sell and lease back its headquarters and manufacturing facility in southern England. Much is being done on the new plug-in hybrid supercar Artura to improve the finances of McLaren, which is currently without a boss, as Mike Flewitt announced in late October that he will be leaving the company after joining the company in 2012 and was appointed CEO a year later.
[Source: Automobilwoche]
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