BACK TO THE FUTURE

YOU’D BE FORGIVEN for wondering why a grandee team which hadn’t won a grand prix for almost a decade until Daniel Ricciardo’s triumph at Monza, is spreading its wings beyond Formula 1. Especially when that team, despite that welcome 1-2 in Italy, is part of a financially troubled group which has had to make difficult cutbacks – to the extent it now rents the home it spent £300million building.

But with McLaren’s growing involvement in IndyCar, eSports and Extreme E, alongside putative dalliances in Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, there is at least a historical precedent: this is a company rooted in getting stuck in to different racing formulae, even if it hasn’t done that for many years.

Back when the factory, such as it was, had a dirt floor and you could count the number of employees on one hand, Bruce McLaren energetically contested the Tasman series and various sportscar events before committing the company to Formula 1. And even then his tiny group continued to build and sell single-seater and sportscar chassis to customers, while eventually running concurrent campaigns in F1 and the lucrative Can-Am sportscar championship, alongside Indy 500 entries.

Putting yourself and your staff through such an exhausting globe-hopping schedule was eye-watering even then and would not be countenanced in our more HR-enlightened age. F1’s growth and evolution also