Pole Position: Are McLaren revving up to join Formula E in 2022-23?

LiveScore’s Jim Munro gets you up to speed with the latest talk from the tracks. 

Having made an electrifying start to the 2021 Formula 1 season, McLaren may be ready to expand their racing operations into Formula E.  

On Wednesday, the Woking-based outfit briefed a gathering of written media journalists regarding a special announcement that will be made this weekend, but placed a strict embargo on any news slipping out before the big reveal. 

That simply fuelled rumours that the prestige marque could be preparing to take up its option to join Formula E for the 2022-23 season. 

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has not been afraid to voice his admiration for the all-electric race series, which marked the start of its seventh season by gaining official status as an FIA world championship. 

Revealing that McLaren had secured the option in January, Brown said: “We’ve been closely observing Formula E for some time and monitoring the series’ progress and future direction.”

Brown has close links with the event. He attended the opening weekend of the season in February, as the action got underway with the Diriyah E-Prix in Saudi Arabia.

He is a friend and business associate of Michael Andretti, team owner of Formula E’s BMW i Andretti Motorsport and together the pair co-own the Andretti United team which is competing in the newly formed Extreme E electric off-road series which debuted last month. 

The man behind Extreme E, Alejandro Agag, is also Formula E's founder and chairman. Brown recently described Agag as being 'visionary' when praising his commercial nous.

If McLaren do take up the option to compete in Formula E from 2022, it would coincide with the introduction of the new Gen 3 electric racecars.

That timing is also significant as the company’s technology division, McLaren Applied, has been the sole provider of the batteries used in Formula E cars since 2018-19, but that contract expires at the end of the 2021-22 campaign.

McLaren die-hards who prefer their thrills fuelled by petrol are hoping that this weekend’s announcement will involve McLaren entering the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2023. 

All will be revealed on McLaren’s YouTube channel live at 6pm UK time on Sunday. You can watch the event here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dxVgZl9u5HeCOXnosCtuQ

Bottas giving up his Mercedes seat

Valtteri Bottas is prepared to hand over his Mercedes, but it’s all for a good cause. 

The Formula 1 veteran gained a few admirers for refusing to let Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton breeze past him during the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend. 

The unflappable Finn had declared at the start of the season that he didn’t intend to play second fiddle to seven-time world champion Hamilton this year. Making Hamilton fight for the overtake increased speculation that perhaps Bottas’ time at the Silver Arrows could be up come the end of this campaign. 

The gossip mongers went into overdrive on Wednesday when Bottas revealed he was selling his privately owned motor — a 2018 Mercedes-Benz AMG-GT S. Could he really be contemplating life without a Merc to drive? 

Far from it. Bottas simply intends to donate some of the funds he’ll receive from the sale of the twin-turbo V8 sports tourer to his local karting track in Lahti, Finland. The circuit needs urgent investment to fight off plans to turn it into a business park serviced by a new ring-road. 

Bottas cut his racing teeth in karting as a junior and intends to support his local track financially, having already given it his name. 

The cool set of second-hand wheels — capable of powering from 0 to 100km per hour in 3.8 seconds — will set you back around £163,000 (€190,000) if you’re interested. As a sweetener, it comes with an invitation to join the man himself for some “fun with go-karts” at the Valtteri Bottas Racepark.

If you have deep enough pockets to make an offer, the car is up for sale on this Finnish website: https://autot.tori.fi/vaihtoautot/mercedes-benz/amg-gt/83958621

Familiar F1 faces return to action in Barcelona

Alex Albon had a testing time this week, completing 54 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in a Red Bull. But rather than being a very late entry for last weekend’s Formula 1 Grand Prix, he was putting Pirelli’s 18-inch prototype tyres for next season through their paces. 

The Red Bull reserve and development driver was joined on track on Tuesday by Robert Kubica, the Polish F1 veteran, who was also burning rubber over 127 laps while he tested compound versions of the tyres acting as reserve driver for Alfa Romeo. 

Daniil Kvyat had his first test run for Alpine on Wednesday having left Alpha Tauri at the end of last season. After completing 123 laps throughout the day, a beaming Kvyat said: “We’ve done a lot of laps today and covered a lot of useful mileage with next year’s tyres.

“It’s good for the future development of our team so I’m very happy to contribute to that. We found out a lot of good info.

“It felt very comfortable in the car straight away, almost like I didn’t have a break, so we were able to push on with the programme, we finished everything quite early.

“It was really enjoyable to be back in a Formula 1 car, very emotional and very cool to drive this beast again and I can’t wait to be back at the wheel.” 

The new, low-profile 18-inch rubber tyres will be introduced in F1 in 2022, replacing the existing 13-inch standard presently in use. 

Overtaking masterclass in Monaco

Last weekend’s Monaco E-Prix debunked the myth that you can’t overtake on the legendary F1 street circuit. Formula E’s finest jousted for the lead for 26 pulsating laps around the principality, with two breathtaking moves catching the eye. 

Beau Rivage is not the place to launch an attack, but nobody told Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans as he sprinted through a narrow gap on the outside of race leader Antonio Felix da Costa to hit the front on lap 18. 

Da Costa said after: “He caught me a little bit by surprise and really, hats off to him for that move, it was amazing — full commitment."

The Portuguese gained perfect revenge on the final lap though, bearing down on Evans as they exited the tunnel before skipping past the Kiwi driver ahead of the Nouvelle Chicane. 

"I’ve done a few of those before and gone straight on and didn’t pull the move off,” said Da Costa. 

“I really left it all on the table there and I was like ‘oh my goodness’ we did this — it was amazing. 

“It was the riskiest overtake of my Formula E career. I didn't think I'd make it but I love racing these guys; so hard and so fair.

"How many lead changes? That just doesn't happen in any other racing series."