Earlier, there were reports that Liberty Media offered financial assistance to a few teams, but McLaren was not one of them. So, the team’s shareholders initiated a cash injection of £300m in order to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic.
With every race lost, each team is losing access to millions of euros, and this does not bode well for the smaller F1 teams. Fortunately for McLaren, they are in talks with third parties about boosting its working capital. As per the Daily Mail, Bahrain’s Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund holds a 57.7% stake in the McLaren Formula One team.
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Ever since the coronavirus pandemic struck the world, McLaren furloughed most of its staff in order to cut costs. In addition to that, drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, and CEO Zak Brown all took wage cuts.
Lando Norris misses racing, as does everyone else at McLaren
For the moment, the 2020 Formula 1 season is on ice while the coronavirus pandemic runs its course. So, when the 2020 F1 season finally kicks off, there will be a massive financial relief for McLaren. However, Lando Norris warned against resuming too early and undoing everyone’s efforts to stay safe and healthy.
He told RaceFans, “Of course, a lot of people want it. Formula 1 want it. The fans want it. There’s still a lot more people in the world which can honestly been affected by it. [But] if anything goes wrong, it can impact the sport in a big way.
“They’ve got to make a tough decision on how to do it, the logistics of everything, so on. I’m having fun as it is with what I’m doing. I’ve done a lot of races on a lot of different programs, esports events. I’m having a lot of fun.
He also confessed that, as much as he enjoys sim racing, nothing compares to the real thing. Since he resides close to the McLaren headquarters, he often cycles there, and sympathises with the factory workers. Lando Norris revealed that hardly any employees visit the factory, apart from personnel who work on the ventilators.
