Balalu wrote: ↑14 May 2022, 13:37
I don't care much about the other racing series to be honest, but I think McLaren are working hard on making the brand name McLaren stand out in the automotive world.
It's exactly how Ferrari made their name way back. It wasn't necessarily because of Formula 1, but because they made sure the name Ferrari was associated with a winning race car.
Back in those days, Le Mans was the most prestigious motorsport race. And it received global recognition. Ferrari established their name in the automotive industry because they won many Le Mans races in the earlier days.
In my opinion, there is currently nothing in the motorsport world that is quite as prestigious as Le Mans was in those years. McLaren can't replicate the same path. So they are following another strategy instead. They are trying to join as many motorsport series as possible, and try and win in as many of them as they can in order to associate the McLaren name/brand with a winning race car, just like Ferrari. (And this helps the automotive side to sell more cars as well).
They are currently struggling on the winning part
but considering the many resource investments, I honestly can see it happen in the short-term future. If they start winning in Formula 1, the rest of the series will probably follow.
The only problem is that they still haven't proven they can consistently/reliably win in F1 (obviously I mean in the modern era, because historically McLaren is one of the most successful teams in the sport). I am hoping all the investments in the F1 team will start to pay off soon. We had a rough start in the new regulations, but given initial expectations, I am still hopeful on 2023/2024.