McLaren F1 team to feed off Formula E entry

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has insisted the team is not stretching ‘too thin’ with its entry into the next season of Formula E.

The Woking-based outfit has acquired Mercedes’ operation in the all-electric single-seater championship, which enters its new Gen 3 era as McLaren joins.

With Formula E added to a race schedule also including the team’s interests in F1, Extreme E and IndyCar, Brown was asked whether the team was spreading itself thin too early and he replied: “No.

“That is definitely something we have taken into consideration before we made decisions but I think if I look at the Formula 1 team, the impact Formula E will have on it is I think it makes McLaren Racing commercially that much more attractive.

“[It] means we will bring in more sponsor partners – whether that is Formula E, IndyCar or Formula 1 – it all kind of ultimately goes into McLaren Racing and vice versa, I think Ian has everything he needs to continue winning but now he has got the incremental bandwidth of McLaren Racing activities which will no doubt be whether that is driver talent, team talent, commercial partnership, expanding the fanbase.”

Explaining that each team was individual to the next, Brown added: “They all feed off each other but they are very much their own racing entities, their own leadership, they are fully dedicated to the racing program they are on.

“It gives our commercial team more work, but that is something they welcome, it gives our office support – HR and Finance – more work but that is something they welcome, but we also staff up accordingly to make sure we can sufficiently support all of our racing activities.”

McLaren aiming to continue “solid” Spanish streak

F1 arrives at the Spanish Grand Prix with McLaren aiming to overturn a scoreless weekend last time out in Miami.

Team principal Andreas Seidl said: “Whilst the race result in Miami wasn’t what we wanted it to be, the team are fully focused on the Barcelona weekend and the European double-header ahead of us.

“Spain is a great all-rounder track, with a nice mixture of high and low speed corners, plus areas that are more technically difficult.

“We’ve had some solid results there over the last few years with good points scored, which we’re looking to continue this year.”