McLaren refuses to shut door on Formula E and WEC after joining Extreme E

McLaren

McLaren refuses to shut door on Formula E and WEC after joining Extreme E

McLaren will join Extreme E in 2022

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Monday 14 June 2021 09:30

Zak Brown has refused to close the door on a potential Formula E or World Endurance Championship entry for McLaren after announcing the team will join Extreme E.

Earlier this year, McLaren "formalised its interest" in joining the Formula E grid as the sport enters its Gen3 era.

However, whilst it may appear the decision to invest in an Extreme E programme has shelved those plans, Brown insisted a final decision is yet to be taken.

"We have not taken any final decision on that yet," said Brown.

"Our option [with Formula E] goes until the end of the year so we want to get this announcement out there and see what antiquity it creates with our fans in the marketplace.

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"So WEC and Formula E remain under review and anticipate having some direction on both of those later on in the year.

"I think all the different racing series have different attributes, different reasons and rationale as to why they may or may not fit within the McLaren Racing portfolio."

McLaren joining is "biggest news" for Extreme E

The opening two Extreme E events have been won by Nico Rosberg's 'Rosberg X Racing' team whilst Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button also have teams racing in the category.

Despite such attention to these names, Extreme E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag believes McLaren's decision to join is bigger still and indicated there remains space for more big names to join the grid.

"I think the news is the biggest news in the history, the short history of Extreme E," said Agag.

"I want to welcome McLaren, I want to welcome Zak. I think we will be having some more surprises, maybe for season two."