McLaren CEO Zak Brown revealed the organisation, including its Formula 1 team, was “months away” from closure in 2020 amid the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The American, who took over his role in 2018, was faced with the reality that McLaren’s finances were dwindling as sales of the company’s road cars ground to a halt.
The impact permeated into the group’s F1 operations, with its future looking bleak at a time when the Woking-based squad continued to be mired within the midfield.
Brown’s revelations come just as McLaren took its first Constructors’ Championship in 26 years, with Lando Norris’ victory in Abu Dhabi securing the title in 2024.
“Closing Abu Dhabi ‘20, we were definitely on the brink,” Brown said post-race.
“We were paying all our bills, but we were months away, not several months…
“We knew we could make it through the year, but we were in a situation where if we didn’t have a cash injection, we would have been at risk.”
Despite culling over 1000 jobs and taking out an emergency loan with the National Bank of Bahrain, McLaren’s situation still appeared to be precarious at that time.
“It wasn’t a comfortable place at all,” he recalled.
“[I] was always confident the shareholders would never let it get there [to insolvency], but it was also clear we needed the investment.
“I could put my head on the pillow at night knowing they’ll back us up if they have to, but it was going to be the ninth inning, to use a baseball term, before they brought in the relief pitcher.”
Sponsorship overload key to turnaround
Private investment group MSP Sport’s Capital bought a 15 per cent stake in McLaren, which became the booster that helped the papaya team launch itself back into orbit.
The investment of £185 million enabled the team, and Brown, time to reassess and redesign its future plans.
Sponsorship, and the security of it by the bucketload, has seemingly been one of the key factors in McLaren gaining further safe footing financially.
From a significantly barer-looking car in 2021, the present day sees the Woking squad boast a whole host of sponsors, including deals with Ecolab, Google, OKX and, most recently, the announcement of a huge deal with global payment giant Mastercard.
From the potential of one of motorsport’s biggest and most prestigious names going out of business to propelling itself back to the front of the F1 grid, McLaren, under Brown’s stewardship, has shown success through steely resolve that Bruce McLaren himself would surely have been proud of.
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