McLaren's involvement in other racing series, such as IndyCar, won't detract from their goal of winning the Formula 1 World Championship according to team boss Zak Brown.
McLaren will have a one-car entry in this year's Indianapolis 500, with Fernando Alonso choosing to skip the Monaco Grand Prix in order to try his hand at winning the event as he embarks upon the famous 'Triple Crown' of motorsport – which involves winning the Monaco GP, the Indy 500 and Le Mans – a feat only achieved by one man, Graham Hill.
Although Brown says McLaren could become more involved in other forms of motorsport besides F1, it remains the operation's primary focus and a key factor in any decision to race elsewhere must take into account whether or not it will reduce its sucess in F1.
"McLaren has a rich history in multiple forms of motor racing," said Brown. "We’re doing electronics in Formula 1, NASCAR, IndyCar, we’re doing the battery in Formula E, we’re doing Indy 500, we have won Le Mans, we have won Can-Am etc.
"So as we move forward our three criteria for other forms of motor racing are: can we be competitive? Is it commercially viable? Does it fit our brand?
"There’s certain forms of motor-racing we wouldn’t do, so anything that ticks those three boxes – the fourth being is it a distraction from our primary goal of being Formula 1 World Champions, [if not] then we’ll entertain it and do it in time.
"Formula 1 is our primary focus, we’ll never do anything which detracts focus from that or pulls resources from that."
Brown added that getting involved in other series doesn't necessarily mean entering a team, but instead becoming a supplier, as with Formula E, or creating a technical partnership.
"Indy 500 was already on the radar and the circumstances allowed us to do it this year, we’ll see how that goes. We’ll take a view on the Indy 500 shortly thereafter, certainly it is our intent to continue with that, then see what else comes along.
"[It's] exciting to be participating in a bigger way in FE. Also with McLaren Applied Technologies, we don’t necessarily have to increase our participation in other forms of motorsport via being a racing team, there’s other technologies that play for us, when we look at motor racing, we can go with our own team and driver but can also be a technology partner."
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