Commercial and digital brands, as well as automotive ones, are interested in buying the outgoing McLaren Formula E team, Motorsport Week can exclusively reveal.
The McLaren brand will be withdrawing from FE at the end of the current campaign, amid its decision to prioritise its resources for its upcoming Hypercar project.
As the team is a customer – of Nissan – and not a manufacturer, companies are in an easier position to make a purchase.
McLaren has already intimated its hope that the team – in terms of personnel – will continue, albeit under a different brand.
Motorsport Week understands that its title sponsor NEOM – the joint-stock company owned by the Saudi Arabian government, which is also a planned city on its Tabuk Province – is interested in purchasing the team.
It is also understood that pan-global automotive giants Stellantis – which currently has its DS and Maserati brands in Formula E – is also weighing-up a bid.
But speaking to Motorsport Week, Formula E’s CEO Jeff Dodds said that despite his sadness at McLaren’s decision, he has been able to look at the situation positively, and revealed that brands outside of the automotive and motor racing worlds are keen on making a bid.
“You can’t sugarcoat that, it’s a bad conversation to have, so that’s the disappointing bit,” he said. “The opportunity bit is, not as a manufacturer team, they’re a customer team, which means there’s an opportunity for the same team with the same resources and the same history to bring a new brand into the championship.
“So I think, as always, I had 24 hours of [thinking], ‘this is a really crap message’, and then I move into, ‘okay, so what’s our opportunity? Who would be amazing brands to bring into the championship?’ So I think they’re not going anywhere quickly.”
“I think there’s interest from automotive brands, there’s interest from consumer brands, and there’s interest from digital brands,” he said.
“So look, it’s not like there’s not a list of potential brands, but the question for Ian [James, McLaren team principal and McLaren Automotive’s Director of Motorsport] is he needs to be comfortable, he’s getting the balance of brand and investment that he needs for that to be a successful team.”
Dodds added that it would not be an alien concept, drawing on the comparison to one of today’s top Formula 1 teams.
“And we all forget, we all look at Red Bull now as a racing brand. Yes. But of course they didn’t come in as a racing brand, right?
“They came in as a consumer brand. And I think it’s very helpful for sports when big consumer brands show a pathway for other consumer brands into sports.
“So, you know, if there was a big consumer brand that was interested in doing a deal with them and it worked for Ian, I think we’d be super happy as a championship to have a big name consumer brand on the grid.”
How a change of owners from McLaren could give Barnard an ex-F1 academy driver team-mate
Regardless if a brand in or outside motorsport will pick-up the brand, the chances are one of its first priorities will be to keep hold of Taylor Barnard.
Barnard, who Dodds describes as “a world-class driver,” is pretty much universally regarded as one of FE’s top assets, due to his age and, as Dodds put it, “charming innocence.”
If a brand outside motorsport take the team over, it is thought that Sam Bird would be on its radar to stay, due to his experience and knowledge of the outfit.
However, if Stellantis were to successfully bid, it might turn its attention elsewhere.
Motorsport Week understands that Theo Pourchaire, who is a Stellantis-contracted driver, will be in contention.
The Frenchman has been placing his shoes firmly onto FE’s welcome mat for some time via Stellantis brands, having tested for Maserati already this year, and just this week signing-up to DS’ Young Driver Programme.
If Pourchaire were to sign, it would make him yet another high-profile ex-Formula 2 driver to make the switch, along with Barnard and his fellow Sauber Academy alumni, Zane Maloney.
If Bird is indeed left out in the cold, then it’s highly plausible he will join McLaren’s Hypercar project, which will be headed-up by his former boss, outgoing Jaguar chief James Barclay.
Bird intimated to Motorsport Week at the Miami E-Prix that he would be keen on being part of the project, having had previous experience in endurance racing with AF Corse in the World Endurance Championship.
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