Competing in just one or two series isn’t enough for race teams anymore. No: organizations like Andretti Global and McLaren Racing are looking for success in as many series as possible — but it’s not quite world domination that these teams have in mind. They’re pursuing a broader market for their brand.
Full disclosure: Extreme E invited me to Chile to cover the 2023 season finale. They covered the cost of my flights and hotels, shuttled me into the midst of a copper mine, and organized interviews on my behalf.
Ahead of the 2023 Extreme E season finale in Chile, I spoke with Roger Griffiths, who serves as team principal for Andretti’s efforts in both Extreme E and Formula E but whose ties with the Andretti team span two decades. He shed light on the recent push by his team to expand into Formula 1, IMSA, and more by offering one critical example.
“Originally, we spoke to Avalanche about IndyCar,” Griffiths explained, referring to the smart contracts company. “We took them to Long Beach, but in our hospitality area, there are photos around the walls that show our different programs. They saw the Formula E car and said, ‘Oh, what’s this?’
“When we explained that it’s about the environment and sustainability and electric racing in city centers, they said, ‘That’s so much more for us.’ The sponsor we brought to talk about IndyCar became our title sponsor in Formula E.”
What makes McLaren and Andretti so distinct from something like a Porsche or a Mercedes, which also field cars in multiple series, is that these two aren’t entering multiple series as manufacturers. The Mercedes that enters F1 is massively distinct from the Mercedes that enters DTM. But the Andretti or McLaren that enters IndyCar is the same entity that also enters Formula E, Extreme E, and Formula 1.
Andretti is, of course, a team derived from the family name of racing legend Mario Andretti, which means that it’s free to court any manufacturer it likes in its pursuit of fielding a team. Interestingly, though, McLaren — an automaker — has forged strategic alliances with manufacturers like Nissan, Acura, and Honda as a way to facilitate its global competition efforts.
“Having these diverse [racing] programs gives sponsors the opportunity to say, we’ve achieved everything we want in one category, we really like the Andretti brand, and we’d like to find a reason to justify staying with Andretti — in Formula E, Extreme E, whatever,” Griffiths said.
But the benefits for these brands goes further. Griffiths explained that Andretti Global hosts a “sponsor day” in Indianapolis each year; this enables all of its sponsors from its various racing programs to both celebrate their success with the brand. It also enables one sponsor to talk to another as a way to facilitate other business-to-business opportunities.
Griffiths also echoed a sentiment I’ve heard from Zak Brown of McLaren multiple times throughout the year: Increasing a team’s presence in various series around the world allows for the formation of a greater team-wide talent pool that can be accessed as needed.
“We’ve had IndyCar engineers come to Formula E races, and Formula E engineers come do the 500,” he said. “These series take a different approach, a different mindset. [Andretti] has incredible loyalty, but if you’re in the same championship for 10 or 15 years, you can get stuck doing things the way you’ve always done them. Now, maybe we can learn something new from somebody coming from a different championship.
“Then, for series like Extreme E, which only has a few races a year and is more seat-of-the-pants engineering because the cars are packed up on a ship, we can actually reach across our entire workforce and say, if you want to do Extreme E, let’s work something out.”
Motorsport is a notoriously fickle industry, one where the whims of a sponsor could spell the death of a team, or where one poor season could lead to a massive performance spiral. In much the same way that analysts recommend diversifying your stock portfolio, Andretti and McLaren have diversified their racing programs. So far, it appears to be an effective strategy, one designed to insulate these motorsport brands from the shifting tides of any one series.