McLaren not tempted to build own F1 engine

Martin Whitmarsh

(GMM) Martin Whitmarsh has played down the likelihood that McLaren might build its own engine for the new V6 rules in 2014.

The British team's F1 chief said in March that McLaren is "ruling nothing out", after the Woking based outfit produced its own 3.8 liter twin-turbo V8 for its new MP4-12C production sports car.

But asked if the V6 rules agreed by the F1 Commission on Wednesday are tempting to McLaren, Whitmarsh told reporters: "No, there's isn't.

"Formula one is an incredibly powerful marketing opportunity, but the cost is such that you need to amortize that over millions of cars per annum. Not thousands," he said on Thursday.

"McLaren's maximum planned output, certainly for the foreseeable future, is no greater than 4,500 units per year. So it really doesn't make sense to use a marketing tool like formula one for the engine."