The current trend of affairs is moving towards an expansive bid by Saudi Arabia to move into the sporting sector. The nation has targeted three of the premier sporting series, i.e., Formula 1, Golf, and Soccer. A classic example is how two weeks ago, the Saudi-backed LIV series merged with PGA in a whopping $3 billion deal. While the Saudi-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF) is targeting to spend the cash to acquire its position on the global sporting scene like the PGA Tour, it came at a steep price for Golf legend, Tiger Woods.

Fox Sports reported that Woods left an eye-watering “offer in the range of $1-1.2 billion to stick with the PGA Tour…only for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to turn around and merge forces with LIV in the end.” Being on such an aggressive spree, has the PIF lost faith in F1? Considering its recent activity of offloading $510,000,000 shares, the Saudi PIF may not want losses from struggling F1 teams like McLaren.

After the PGA takeover, Saudi-backed PIF ditches McLaren

McLaren had been infused with a massive load of funds back in July 2021. And the wealth of it came from the PIF. However, as per reports, and in the light of its other ventures, the investment fund has decided to offload the investment made to Gulf giants, Bahrain.

ArabNews reported, “Bahrain’s state investment fund Mumtalakat is buying preference shares and warrants worth £400 million ($510,000,000) in carmaker McLaren from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Ares Management, Sky News reported on Wednesday.” 

“The transaction will not lead to any new money being injected into McLaren, the Sky News report said, adding that an announcement from Mumtalakat on the deal will come on Thursday.”

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While this news is still fresh, it wasn’t long ago that the Saudi PIF thought of executing the biggest deal ever!

PIF could have bought Formula 1

In early 2023, the news was ripe that the Saudi-backed PIF was in the works to submit a record-breaking $20 billion bid to acquire Formula 1 from Liberty Media. But while the deal supposedly failed, Saudi Arabia’s Sports Minister had a different log of events.

He told The Athletic, “What I know is what I read in the news, honestly. I think it’s just purely speculation, I don’t think there was any serious talk about that. It took a lot of heat and a lot of response and things between them, with the FIA and so on.”

“But I am in charge of developing sports within the kingdom, not investment or all of these things — (the Saudi Arabian state’s sovereign wealth fund) is. But from what I know, it’s purely speculation.”

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Would you have liked to see a Saudi-run F1 competition?