McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed interest in joining Formula E over WEC in 2023.
Currently, the Woking-based team is unable to compete in the all-electric series as their Applied division supplies the batteries to all teams on the grid.
But with Williams Advanced Engineering taking over that tender plus the introduction of the new Gen 3 car, Brown told reporters in Abu Dhabi that Formula E is “something that we are starting to look at more closely”.
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When it was then noted that both Audi and BMW have announced their withdrawal from the series after Season 7 however, the McLaren chief denied it was a sign FE was on the decline.
“Of course you have to ask yourself why but it’s deep with manufacturers support, so I’m ultimately not concerned,” he said.
“Any time teams or manufacturers leave a series, you have to ask why. I don’t know. Obviously, Audi’s announced that they’re going and getting in Dakar and LMDh, so that’s great. With them being in the same family as Porsche and Porsche being in there maybe their strategy is Porsche should do that, Audi should be somewhere else.
“It started off being very inexpensive and then it skyrocketed, which is what happens. Now it looks like they’re going to cap that quickly before it further grows.”
Until now, it had been expected McLaren would capitalise on the new Hypercar regulations to return to the WEC alongside their IndyCar program.
“Those two series have our attention, and we want to get through this season, we want to make sure that anything we do is not a distraction to our Formula 1 efforts,” Brown explained.
“We layered In IndyCar, and I think we’ve had a very successful year after a bumpy start in 2019. Those two are something that we’re looking at. [It is] the same criteria that we have on IndyCar: do we think we can be competitive? Do we think it’s commercially and fiscally sustainable? Do we think it fits our brand?
“I think both those series tick all those boxes, so it’s all about layering them in from a timing perspective if we’re going to do either.”