The corona crisis has seriously affected the McLaren group. The British sports car maker has suffered major losses and faces difficult decisions. And that has not gone unnoticed by the German constructors, because both Audi and BMW are said to be interested in McLaren.
Audi is said to be particularly interested in McLaren’s Formula 1 team, which is currently battling the Scuderia Ferrari for third place in the constructors’ standings. The Volkswagen group is investigating a participation in the F1 championship and would prefer to do so from an existing infrastructure. The fact that McLaren’s F1 racing stable is currently led by former Porsche Motorsport boss Andreas Seidl only makes those rumors more credible.
What does BMW want?
BMW is said to be in talks with Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund and one of McLaren’s largest shareholders, this year. Munich is said to have set its sights on road super sports cars, a car segment in which BMW is no longer present. Because you can hardly call the plug-in hybrid BMW i8 a competitor for the Audi R8 or the Mercedes-AMG GT.
Whether McLaren is interested in that German interference is as yet unclear. Woking only says that there is currently no takeover, so that there is no deal (yet) with Audi or BMW.
Sources: AutoCar, Reuters & Automobilwoche
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