McLaren Racing is formalizing an evaluation to potentially enter Formula E, announcing this morning that it has officially obtained an option from the series to join as a team or manufacturer in two years. McLaren CEO Zak Brown has commented in the past that the English car maker could join FE as part of him building out the racing division’s portfolio beyond Formula 1, but today’s announcement formalizes a forthcoming evaluation. The joint statement stops short of a McLaren commitment to join FE, but it will essentially now have “first dibs” on a slot starting with the ’22-23 season should it choose to do so.
McLaren will have the ability to either join as a full “factory” team, where the car company both owns and runs the team, or to partner with a pre-existing team. It has a pre-existing relationship with the series where its applied sciences division already supplies FE teams with car batteries. However, that deal expires after the ’21-22 season and McLaren will look at potentially stepping up its role with the series the season after.
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