The McLaren Group issued a short statement on Monday, rubbishing claims the brand has been sold to German automotive giant, Audi.
A report in Autocar claims Audi and McLaren have come to an agreement, which would see the British sportscar manufacturer, as well as its Formula 1 team, come under the Audi brand, but McLaren called the report “wholly inaccurate”.
“McLaren Group is aware of a news media report stating it has been sold to Audi,” read the statement. “This is wholly inaccurate and McLaren is seeking to have the story removed.
“McLaren’s technology strategy has always involved ongoing discussions and collaboration with relevant partners and suppliers, including other carmakers, however, there has been no change in the ownership structure of the McLaren Group.”
Sources have however confirmed that discussions have taken place between McLaren and Audi, but no such agreement has yet been reached between the two parties.
Audi is looking for an entry into Formula 1 and many see a takeover of an existing team as its easiest route, rather than starting a new motorsport programme from scratch.
I never thought about Audi (VAG) buying whatever is left of the McLaren Group as a whole, or even the F1 team only — but it makes a lot of sense. And of course McLaren would deny such a thing if it’s not finalized. Especially if Zak Brown has anything to say about it, he is probably fighting like hell to prevent this deal from happening because a German company like VAG would never, ever tolerate his incompetency (and whatever money embezzling scam that he clearly has going on), so he would almost certainly be fired.
First, there is not much left that McLaren even actually owns due to Brown absolutely killing the entire organization, so I would imagine at this point VAG could buy it for pennies on the dollar (equity companies have been slowly doing just this over the past few years).
Second, it gives VAG the chance to enter F1 with an existing team. If they buy McLaren’s Automotive division then they could keep the McLaren name to promote their new company, and build their own motors (I’m sure new McLaren road cars would have R8 motors or whatever anyway), and also supply it to other teams and have various VAG brands in F1 (McLaren, Audi, Porsche, etc). All of this seems like a really cheap way of getting into F1 in a huge way.
If this happens, it’s a win-win for fans and the McLaren Group.
Also, ironically “papaya orange”, the color Zak Brown thinks is “McLaren orange” (but isn’t), is actually an Audi color.
So the reports now are VAG would be buying the entire McLaren Group (or what’s left of it) for $600 million, which is basically pennies on the dollar. Nearly 10 years ago when Ron Dennis was trying to buy the 75% he didn’t own, it was going to cost him $1 billion. Consider inflation and think about that for a second. This is the damage Zak Brown has done to McLaren in just 5 years.