Zak Brown Reveals McLaren Losing a Lot of Money in Formula One Business

According to some rumours, McLaren CEO Zak Brown is toying with the idea of fielding a World Endurance Championship team. However, he also confessed that there is one big snag with that grand idea. Apparently, the Formula 1 team is “losing lots of money”, which could potentially affect their chances of gaining a WEC entry.

It is worth noting that McLaren have confirmed their full-time participation in the 2020 IndyCar season. However, they are not entering as a factory entity, instead they will be partnering the Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsport team.

Now, McLaren are aiming to expand their resume by venturing into the WEC’s top class. However, it all hinges on the convergence with the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s DPi 2.0 concept.

Admittedly, Brown confessed that building a hypercar for the category would not be financially viable. To make matters worse, the McLaren F1 team are “losing lots of money”. On the other hand, they expect F1 to lean towards sustainability under the budget cap from 2021.

Speaking to Motorsport.com about McLaren’s ability to run outfits in three series, Brown assured: “Yes. But right now we’ve only got two and we’d only do the third if it was sustainable and that’s why we haven’t jumped in right now under the rules that exist today.

Brown divulged that McLaren do not believe that they have the financial resources to run cars in three series. However, he did say that running in IndyCar would be  beneficial for them from a business point of view. He was glad that they were able to make the Indy move work in their favour, in spite of not qualifying for the Indy 500.

In other news, Toyota and Aston Martin have booked their place in the WEC Hypercar class. Both manufacturers will make their official debuts in the 2020/21 WEC season. This is after rumours emerged that Toyota will spend “north of $40 million”, however Brown hopes that the series’ chiefs will keep costs under control.