Mclaren Partners With Saudi Smart City
British motor racing team McLaren Racing and Neom, a government-backed smart city project in Saudi Arabia, have announced a strategic title partnership.
The new relationship will aim to drive innovation and talent development specifically in electric motorsport, with the sustainable region in northwest Saudi Arabia becoming the title partner of the McLaren Formula E Team and McLaren Extreme E Team from the 2022/2023 season.
The combined teams will be known as NEOM McLaren Electric Racing.
The partnership highlights McLaren’s continued commitment to technology and innovation. It follows last week’s announcement (22nd July) that McLaren Racing will be partnering with Goldman Sachs in a deal that will see the global financial institution help McLaren reach its net zero goals.
Under terms of the new agreement, McLaren will become a founding partner of OXAGON, a coastal city within NEOM, home to an advanced and clean industries eco-system and the OXAGON Research and Innovation Campus, which is set to offer state-of-the-art facilities across its lab, office, and business spaces. McLaren becomes its first ever partner.
The deal will also see selected candidates from Saudi Arabia will be given the opportunity to take part in a one-year placement with McLaren Racing as part of the NEOM Graduate Opportunities in Work (GrOW) programme.
McLaren already has links to Saudi Arabia after receiving a £550m investment from the country’s Public Investment Fund in July 2021.
McLaren Racing will enter the 2022/2023 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship from season nine and the beginning of the sport’s new Gen3 era. The NEOM McLaren Formula E Team will be formed through the acquisition of the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team.
NEOM title partner branding will be carried across all McLaren Formula E Team and McLaren MX Extreme E Team assets, includes the racings cars themselves.
Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, said, “We are delighted to welcome NEOM to the McLaren Racing family. This is an incredible way to kick off our entry into Formula E and to unify our electric racing series. We are thrilled to introduce NEOM McLaren Electric Racing and to work with NEOM to nurture talent and drive innovation.
“Working with OXAGON’s innovative advanced and clean industries eco-system will allow us to make meaningful contributions through our bespoke Accelerator program which exists to leverage performance-driven data and translate this into the culture and thinking of our partners.”
Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO, NEOM, added, “Our partnership with McLaren Racing complements NEOM’s commitment to driving sustainable solutions and tackling some of society’s most pressing challenges. The partnership will allow us to share our collective resources and experience to yield exciting results, not only for our own organizations, but also for the broader automotive and sports industries. NEOM is an economic engine for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and will be a hub for innovative businesses like McLaren Racing to conduct cross-industry research, incubate, collaborate and bring new technologies to the world.”
Image: McLaren Racing
