McLaren weighing whether or not to sell minority stake in F1 team – report

McLaren Group is weighing to sell a minority stake in its F1 team as it tries to raise money in times of COVID-19 pandemic.

In the wake of financial hardship owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been reported that McLaren are weighing a minority sale of their F1 team. This comes after the team was supposedly looking into selling off their heritage cars, which nears fruition.

Both the reports come from Sky News, which states that McLaren held meetings internally where they discussed selling 20-30 percent of stake in order to raise money. The report also adds that they are in discussions with advisors and lenders too.

Sky News sources, though, cautioned that it is only at the beginners stage, and that other options are being looked at as well, which includes raising money through existing bondholders. The main idea is to help McLaren remain as a healthy team in F1.

With Daniel Ricciardo coming in next year to partner Lando Norris and McLaren re-starting its association with Mercedes, it will need as much financial help. At one stage Zak Brown was pushing for the budget cap to drop to even $100 million.

However, it stayed put at $145 million for 2021 due to resistance from the bigger F1 teams like Ferrari. It will decrease to $135 million by 2023 but a lot of expenses like driver salaries, marketing costs, etc, doesn’t come under the cap.

McLaren raised about 300 million pounds from its principal shareholder via equity but it seems like they are unable to add more. Mumtalakat Holding Company holds 56.40 % shares with Mansour Ojjeh having 14.32%, Michael Latifi 9.84% and other minority shareholders accumulating to 19.44%.

The report also comes after they furloughed staff – something they were first to pull the trigger on. Similarly, Williams offered up themselves to be bought into, or bought outright. Generally speaking, the outlook is grim for the F1 teams that the grid comprises of.

It is, however, important to note that McLaren has not yet confirmed nor denied the facts of these reports. So far, it seems like the IndyCar team and their other projects like GT racing will likely be safe from any restructuring that may take place.

Here’s Lando Norris shunning undue remarks on Twitch

Here’s Lando Norris on F1 Nation podcast

Here’s McLaren confirming job cuts

Here’s McLaren looking to sell/mortgage heritage cars

Here’s Carlos Sainz on McLaren, Ferrari move and more

Here’s what McLaren’s Zak Brown said about current moves