Fallen F1 Giants McLaren Leased $300 Million Facility to Shoot $180 Million Star Wars Project Despite Humiliating Defeat in 2022

The one team that needs to hang its head in shame after the Bahrain GP is McLaren. For the second year in a row, the Woking-based outfit produced a subpar car. The team and the drivers have kept faith in the MCL60. However, the events of the pre-season testing and the race in Bahrain prove that McLaren is well off the pace even for a midfield battle. This is the reason critics believe that the impractical investment of McLaren is better suited as a movie set of a famous franchise rather than producing F1 challengers.

McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) is a state-of-the-art facility for all of McLaren’s operations. The factory is based on Chertsey Road Woking Surrey and is a big attraction. However, as things stand, the factory is not capable of producing a championship-winning car at the moment. Moreover, the $3oo million factory is highly impractical.

In fact, the facility worked as a set for the Star Wars franchise’s latest limited series project. Star Wars: Andor has multiple scenes shot in the (MTC) and the total cost of the project was $180 million.

This was the topic of discussion on the ESPN Unlapped podcast. “It was definitely in Andor. The new star wars. It features a number of times inside one of the space stations. And you go in there and it is like a space station. It is a remarkable building,” said one of the hosts.

But they also revealed the facility’s impracticality. “But it’s always been a building which those who have worked inside always criticized. To actually work in there and to go to another department sometimes you have to walk 10 minutes to get an answer to something or send an email rather than go face to face. So as impressive as it is there’s always been a question of how much it was a vanity project and how much it was actually a fully functioning F1 factory,” they added.

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However, the impracticality of the MTC is not a secret. Before laying the foundation of the Aston Martin factory, Lawrence Stroll took a dig at the facility as well.

Lawrence Stroll took a dig at the McLaren technology center before laying the foundation for the Aston Martin facility

Aston Martin has clearly been the biggest surprise of the season so far. However, it was inevitable after Lawrence Stroll’s massive investment in the F1 project. The biggest and the most effective one was the new facility. A facility he built not for show, but for efficiency and practicality.

Stroll revealed that in a conversation with BBC back in 2021. He said, “This is the reverse of what Ron Denis (Creator of the McLaren facility) did with Norman Foster. The purpose of what it’s been built for, to be efficient and streamlined. To have everyone sitting side by side under one roof, taking into consideration the new financial regs and where sport will go in the future.”

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Stroll might’ve faced backlash for his comments back in the day. However, as things stand, the Canadian is having the last laugh.