A loss-making Formula 1 team and concerns over costs are driving McLaren's decision over a future WEC project, CEO Zak Brown says.

The British team, who won Le Mans in 1995 with the famous F1 GTR, is considering an entry likely with the McLaren Senna GTR when the replacement of the current LMP1 regulations come into effect in 2020.

This comes as the company also teams up with the Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsport outfit for a full-time return to IndyCar next year, but Brown admits the financial implications of adding WEC would likely be bigger.

“Yes. Right now we’ve only got two [projects, F1 and IndyCar] 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," the McLaren boss told Motorsport. 

“We are not comfortable we can make that fiscally work. IndyCar is a good business, we can make that work. We made that work, believe it or not, even with the fiasco of not qualifying [for the Indy 500].

“Formula 1 we are losing lots of money, but the new cost cap is coming in, sponsorship is going really well. We see the trajectory of Formula 1 becoming sustainable, so that’s why we are now looking at sportscars.

“If we can get a business model that works then we would enter, but what we are not going to do is enter another racing series, any racing series that isn’t fiscally responsible.”

As for what is raising McLaren's heckles about increased costs in WEC's new Hypercar era, Brown revealed the budget the current champions are apparently committing to stay ahead.

“I think Toyota is going to spend north of $40 million,” he declared. “I don’t think you have to spend north of $40 million, I think you can maybe spend half of that.

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“But I think the one who has the biggest cheque book we know historically is the one who wins. I think they need to come up with a formula where it becomes increasingly difficult to throw more money at it.

“So the $20-40 million range is where things sit and we want to be towards the lower end of that, but we need to be confident we can be competitive with that spend level.”