F1 News

McLaren open to WEC Hypercar opportunity after 2021 F1 cost caps

McLaren open to WEC Hypercar opportunity after 2021 F1 cost caps

15-06-2019 17:46

Bevan Youl

McLaren boss Zak Brown, as well as sporting director Gil de Ferran, have said that they are open to the opportunity to branch into WEC in 2021 when the Formula 1 cost caps come in as well as the WEC hypercar introduction.

Aston Martin and Toyota have already signed up to the announcement of the new regulations for the WEC and the McLaren heads have taken a strong interest in getting involved, whilst not focusing less on F1.
 
Brown said at Le Mans (quoted by RaceFans): “It would have nothing to do with our Formula One team but it would run by our racing group, led by Gil and a bespoke team would be set up to run it.
 
“So it would be in collaboration with automotive, run by racing but would not disrupt our Formula One activities.

“I think it’s all part of the analysis of how would we do it, when would we do it.

“Budget cap comes in 2021, the soonest we’d be ready here is 2021 so there’s a – as you move to restructure your organisation, that’s opportune timing.

“I think it’s a positive that these dynamics are going on in F1 at the same time that we’re considering WEC.”

Because of the budget caps coming in 2021 for F1 De Ferran believes it could be an opportunity to transfer staff internally  from the F1 team, while Brown confirmed that the  hypercar project would run independently and not hinder their F1 opertations.

De Ferran said: “It is never easy to put a whole team of people together. There’s a lot of operational considerations. Hopefully on the Formula One rules, in 2021 it’s a whole new world in terms of the regulations over there so there might be an opportunity to deploy people inside McLaren in a different way.”

 “We would run everything independently, not only technically but fiscally so one isn’t going to pull on the other and if we do this, we’re not going to do this – so everything has to stand on its own two feet,” added Brown.

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