McLaren lost more than 110 million euros in 2018!

When McLaren announced its intention to part ways with Honda after three years of unsuccessful collaboration, its executives proclaimed that it was to move forward, especially since the Renault engine had won races thanks to Red Bull.

But this decision had a significant financial impact on the British team: not only did it forgo the millions of euros that Honda paid in sponsorship, but it also lost the benefit of free power units (valued at around ten million euros).

The impact on the team’s accounts was quickly felt, as revealed by the publication of its 2018 financial results. The Racing division of the McLaren Group showed a significant decrease in revenue, dropping in just one season from 209 to only 132 million pounds sterling, mainly due to the reduction in the fee paid by Liberty Media since the team dropped from 6th place in 2016 to 9th in 2017.

At the same time, its costs have also significantly increased, which has deepened the deficits. It has thus reached 96 million pounds, or 111 million euros at the current exchange rate.

In order to ensure its long-term financing, it was decided to open up the team’s capital, with Michael Latifi representing an injection of fresh funds amounting to 200 million pounds sterling (with the last 50 million to be paid by May 2019). Additionally, the team has started selling off the family jewels, namely part of its collection of historic vehicles, amounting to 10 million pounds sterling.

The 2019 accounts should look better as the team moved up to 6th place while its costs are set to drastically decrease since Carlos Sainz’s salary is significantly lower than that of Fernando Alonso.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr