INDEX / DIRECTORY / MCLAREN

McLaren

Car Manufacturers 92 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-07-04
BDS-1000 Score 8 /1000 E Tier E - Limited

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McLaren-BDS-1000-Dossier

File: 06-main-dossier.md


Key Findings

  • Digital: McLaren’s core network, security and cloud/AI infrastructure runs through Cisco (Official Security Partner since May 2024) and Google/Alphabet (Gemini AI partner, extended November 2025) - both vendors separately and independently documented as suppliers to the Israeli Ministry of Defence and, in Google’s case, to Israel’s Project Nimbus government cloud programme; this is vendor-level exposure, not a McLaren-direct relationship.123
  • Economic/Ownership: McLaren Automotive (Abu Dhabi’s CYVN/L’imad) and McLaren Racing (Bahrain’s Mumtalakat, with CYVN/L’imad a minority stake) are wholly owned by Gulf sovereign-wealth vehicles from two Abraham Accords states, but no Israeli investor, institution, or state entity holds any disclosed stake in McLaren at any level.456
  • Supplier: McLaren’s official 3D-printing partner, Stratasys, is a dual-headquartered US/Israeli company with documented Israeli-military customer relationships, but the McLaren link is a standard commercial supply contract for additive-manufacturing hardware with no defence dimension disclosed.78
  • Not found: No direct McLaren contract, facility, statement, or political act concerning Israel, the IDF, or the occupied territories was identified in any of the four domains, and McLaren does not appear on the OHCHR, Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, or BDS Movement target lists.91011

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameMcLaren Automotive Ltd / McLaren Group Holdings Ltd (encompassing McLaren Automotive and McLaren Racing Ltd)
JurisdictionUnited Kingdom (England and Wales) - private limited company12
HeadquartersMcLaren Technology Centre, Woking, Surrey, UK12
SectorLuxury/high-performance automotive manufacturing (McLaren Automotive); Formula 1 motorsport constructor (McLaren Racing)
OwnershipMcLaren Automotive: wholly owned by CYVN Holdings LLC (Abu Dhabi Government mobility vehicle), itself folded into L’imad Holding Co (wholly Abu Dhabi Government-owned) as of January 2026.45 McLaren Racing: majority-owned by Bahrain’s Mumtalakat Holding Company, with CYVN/L’imad holding a non-controlling minority stake following a September 2025 buyout of remaining minority shareholders at a $5bn valuation.613 No Israeli capital identified at any level.
Key Executives / GovernanceH.E. Jassem Mohammed Bu Ataba Al Zaabi (Group Chairman; also CYVN Holdings Chairman and Abu Dhabi Department of Finance Chairman); Paul Walsh (Executive Chairman); Nick Collins (CEO); board members Luca di Montezemolo, H.E. Mariam Al Mheiri, Kaj-Erik Relander, Michel Combes, Pierre-Yves Roussel, Torsten Müller-Ötvös.147 No individual political statements, donations, or lobbying by any named executive on Israel/Palestine were identified.
Israeli-Nexus SummaryNo direct McLaren-Israel commercial, political, or military relationship identified; exposure is confined to (a) vendor-level ties (Cisco, Google/Alphabet, Dell, VMware) whose own customers include the Israeli military/government, and (b) a direct supplier, Stratasys, that is itself a dual-US/Israeli company.

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

McLaren is a UK-headquartered luxury automotive manufacturer and Formula 1 constructor, majority owned by Gulf sovereign-wealth funds - Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings (now under L’imad Holding Co) for McLaren Automotive, and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat for McLaren Racing.456 Across four independent domain audits (military, digital, economic, political), no direct contractual, operational, or political relationship between McLaren and Israel, the Israeli military, or the occupied Palestinian territories was identified. McLaren has no manufacturing, retail, or defence-contracting footprint touching Israel, and does not appear in any of the major NGO or civil-society databases (OHCHR, Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, “Don’t Buy Into Occupation”) that track corporate Israel-linked complicity.91011

The dossier’s strongest documented vector is digital-vendor exposure. McLaren’s core enterprise technology stack - Cisco (network and, since May 2024, security infrastructure), Google/Alphabet (cloud and, since November 2025, Gemini AI), and Dell Technologies (HPC/innovation partner) - is supplied by vendors that separately and extensively serve the Israeli Ministry of Defence and Israeli state institutions.12321 Cisco has held large Israeli MOD server contracts since 2013 and built the “David’s Citadel” military data centre; Google/Alphabet is a Project Nimbus co-contractor supplying Israeli government cloud and AI infrastructure; Dell/EMC has won Israeli MOD tenders and sponsored an “IT For IDF” conference.32221 None of these findings establish that McLaren’s own workloads, contracts, or data touch Israeli military infrastructure - the audits are explicit that this is a vendor-level nexus, not a McLaren-direct one, and no evidence confirms or rules out data segregation between McLaren’s tenancy and Israel-facing infrastructure.3

A second identified vector is McLaren’s direct supplier relationship with Stratasys, its official 3D-printing partner since January 2017. Stratasys is a dual-headquartered US/Israeli company whose Israeli military customer base and Israel-based manufacturing/R&D facilities are independently documented, including a company-disclosed SEC risk factor concerning the October 2023 war.7823 This is a standard commercial hardware-supply contract for additive-manufacturing equipment at the McLaren Technology Centre, with no defence-sector dimension to McLaren’s own use of the technology.7

What is not supported by evidence is any direct McLaren-Israel military, economic, or political relationship. McLaren Automotive has no defence contracts with Israel, the UK MoD, or the US DoD; its one defence-adjacent partnership (McLaren Racing’s 2024 UK Ministry of Defence Accelerator programme) is a distinct legal entity’s initiative concerning the UK MoD exclusively, with no Israel dimension.24 McLaren has no manufacturing, sales, or corporate presence in Israel; its owners hold no Israeli capital; and no McLaren corporate statement, lobbying activity, sponsorship, or executive/driver conduct addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was identified.152526 A name-collision entity, “McLarens Israel Ltd” (an unrelated insurance firm), and grey-market resale of used McLarens on Israeli secondary-market platforms were both investigated and found unconnected to McLaren-corporate decision-making.171827

Weighed together, the evidence record supports a BRS score of 8, Tier E (Minimal) - the lowest-severity tier in this framework - reflecting a company with essentially no direct Israel/Palestine nexus, whose only documented linkages run through the separate, upstream conduct of arms-length technology vendors and a hardware supplier, not through any McLaren-corporate act, contract, or policy.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
Jan 2017Stratasys becomes McLaren Racing’s official 3D-printing supplier under a four-year deal, later continued.78
Aug 2021McLaren Applied (former technology/electronics arm) divested to Greybull Capital, becoming an independent company outside the McLaren Automotive perimeter.28
May 2022VMware becomes an Official Partner of McLaren, providing multi-cloud infrastructure.3
Dec 2022McLaren Automotive announces a civilian design-software collaboration with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.29
2022Cisco becomes McLaren’s Official Technology Partner.1
Mar 2024McLaren Racing’s Accelerator arm partners with the UK Ministry of Defence / DE&S on vehicle electrification and data projects (Project LURCHER) - a McLaren Racing, not McLaren Automotive, initiative.24
May 2024Cisco becomes McLaren’s Official Security Partner (Secure Firewall, XDR, ThousandEyes, Webex).1
Dec 2024CYVN Holdings (Abu Dhabi) signs deal with Mumtalakat (Bahrain) to acquire McLaren Automotive.4
Early 2025CYVN completes acquisition of McLaren Automotive (~£1.2bn); McLaren Group Holdings formed.45
Apr 2025McLaren Group Holdings announces new board following CYVN recapitalisation.14
Sep 2025Mumtalakat and CYVN buy out all remaining McLaren Racing minority shareholders at a $5bn valuation; Mumtalakat retains Racing majority.613
Nov 2025McLaren-Google partnership extended and re-centred on Gemini AI.2
Jan 2026CYVN restructured into L’imad Holding Co (wholly Abu Dhabi Government-owned).5
Feb 2026McLaren Racing extends its Dell Technologies partnership.21

Corporate Overview

McLaren Group Holdings Ltd is the UK-registered umbrella entity encompassing two operationally distinct businesses: McLaren Automotive Ltd, the Woking-based supercar manufacturer (sole manufacturing site: the McLaren Technology Centre), and McLaren Racing Ltd, the Formula 1 constructor.1214 A third, unrelated entity sharing only the “McLaren” name - McLaren Construction Group PLC - is a separate UK construction firm with a Defence & Security division serving the UK MoD; it has no corporate relationship with McLaren Automotive or McLaren Racing, and no Israel-linked project was identified on its public portfolio.3031

Ownership sits with two Gulf sovereign-wealth vehicles. McLaren Automotive is wholly owned by CYVN Holdings LLC, an Abu Dhabi Government mobility-investment vehicle, itself restructured in January 2026 under L’imad Holding Co (wholly Abu Dhabi Government-owned, chaired by Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan).45 McLaren Racing remains majority-owned by Bahrain’s Mumtalakat Holding Company, with CYVN/L’imad holding a non-controlling minority stake since the September 2025 buyout of remaining minority investors.613 Both Abu Dhabi and Bahrain are Abraham Accords states with formal diplomatic and trade ties to Israel (the UAE-Israel free-trade agreement entered into force in 2022) - this is owner-level sovereign-state context, not a McLaren-brand act, and is flagged as such throughout the underlying audits.3233

No Israeli subsidiary, franchise, joint venture, or authorised dealership of McLaren was identified. The apparent Israeli-market presence identified in research - an entity called “McLarens Israel Ltd” and used-McLaren listings on the Israeli platform Autoboom.co.il - reflects, respectively, a legally unrelated global insurance firm and independent grey-market resale activity, neither of which involves any McLaren-corporate relationship.171827

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified that McLaren Automotive holds or has held any defence procurement contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, the IDF, or any other national defence ministry.34 No dual-use military or tactical variant of McLaren technology, and no involvement in munitions, weapons systems, or strategic platforms, was identified.34 No supply-chain integration with Israeli or Israel-supplying defence primes (Elbit Systems, Rafael, IAI) was identified, and no logistical sustainment or base-services relationship with any military force was found.34

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

McLaren Automotive’s only publicly disclosed defence-adjacent relationship is a December 2022 civilian design-software collaboration with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, explicitly scoped to future supercar development with no weapons application, export licensing, or Israeli nexus.29 McLaren Racing’s March 2024 partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence’s Accelerator programme (vehicle electrification, Project LURCHER) is a distinct legal entity’s initiative concerning the UK MoD exclusively, with no Israel dimension disclosed.24 McLaren Applied, the former technology/electronics arm with potential government-adjacent capability, was divested to Greybull Capital in August 2021 and is now fully independent; its post-divestiture activity is not attributable to McLaren Automotive.28 No Standard Individual Export Licence or equivalent authorising controlled exports to Israel was identified; McLaren’s disclosed trade activity is limited to civilian vehicle components.25

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

McLaren’s enterprise technology stack is built on vendor partnerships rather than in-house infrastructure: Cisco (Official Technology Partner since 2022, Official Security Partner since May 2024) supplies core networking, firewall, XDR, and collaboration infrastructure across McLaren’s paddock, mobile data centre, and UK technology centre.1 Google/Alphabet, extended in November 2025, supplies cloud analytics and a new Gemini-AI natural-language race-data tool.2 Dell Technologies has been McLaren’s Official Innovation/HPC partner since 2018, most recently extended in February 2026, underpinning CFD and aerodynamic simulation.3 VMware, an Official Partner since May 2022 (now a Broadcom subsidiary), provides multi-cloud infrastructure.3 Stratasys has been McLaren’s official 3D-printing supplier since January 2017.78

Each of these vendors carries separately documented, extensive Israeli government or military customer relationships. Cisco has held Israeli MOD server contracts since 2013 ($150m) and 2017 ($250m), and built the “David’s Citadel” military data centre completed in 2020; it has also been reported to have supplied CCTV/communications infrastructure to West Bank settlement hubs (2019) and Jerusalem’s “Smart City” surveillance programme (2017), with its Israel revenue reported to have grown from $122m (FY2015) to $283m (2024).322 Google/Alphabet is a co-contractor, with Amazon, on Project Nimbus, Israel’s $1.2bn government cloud and AI contract; per a July 2025 UN Special Rapporteur report to the Human Rights Council, Google Cloud and the Nimbus consortium supplied “critical cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure” to the Israeli military in October 2023.9 Dell/EMC won an Israeli MOD server tender reportedly worth over $150m in January 2023 and separately sponsored an “IT For IDF” conference in July 2024, and Who Profits documents Dell cloud infrastructure use by Cognyte Technologies, reportedly used for population-tracking systems in Gaza and the West Bank.2110 VMware was reported around 2016 to have a ten-year relationship under which all IDF data centres were standardized on VMware vSphere; no public evidence identified confirms or denies whether that relationship continued after Broadcom’s November 2023 acquisition of VMware.10 Stratasys, McLaren’s direct supplier, is itself co-headquartered in Minneapolis and Rehovot, Israel; it has been reported to count the Israeli military as a major customer, with some employees subject to IDF reserve callup, and its FY2023 SEC Form 20-F discloses a risk factor on its Israel operations tied to the October 2023 war.823

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

All of the above findings are vendor-level, not McLaren-specific: the audits are explicit that no direct contract, partnership, or service agreement between McLaren and the Israeli MOD, IDF, or Israeli intelligence agencies was identified, and McLaren’s exposure runs exclusively through its vendors’ separate customer relationships.3 No public evidence identified that McLaren operates any data centre in Israel, that McLaren itself participates in Project Nimbus, or that McLaren’s Google Cloud tenancy is co-located with or segregated from Nimbus’s Israel-based infrastructure - the evidence confirms only that Alphabet, at the corporate-parent level, holds the Nimbus contract.9 No public evidence identified of Israeli-origin biometric, facial-recognition, or predictive-analytics technology used at any McLaren facility, retail store, or fan-engagement operation.3 McLaren does not appear by name in the OHCHR business-and-human-rights database, Who Profits, or AFSC Investigate’s company database, and no organised boycott or divestment campaign naming McLaren specifically was identified.91019

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of McLaren Automotive sourcing parts, materials, or sub-systems from any Israeli-domiciled supplier; a specific check against Israeli automotive-technology firm Mobileye found no commercial relationship with McLaren.36 All McLaren vehicles are manufactured exclusively at the Woking, UK facility, with no production, labelling, or origin issue linked to Israel or the occupied territories.12 McLaren’s ownership chain - CYVN/L’imad (Abu Dhabi) and Mumtalakat (Bahrain) - contains no Israeli sovereign, institutional, or strategic-capital component at any level, and no Israeli investor holds a disclosed stake in McLaren Automotive, McLaren Group Holdings, or L’imad.456

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No official McLaren retailer or authorised importer exists in Israel; McLaren’s published Middle East retail network (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait, Doha, Manama, Beirut) does not include Israel.1516 Used McLaren vehicles do circulate in Israel via the secondary-market platform Autoboom.co.il, but this reflects independent grey/parallel-import activity by private individuals or dealers, with no McLaren-corporate importer agreement, franchise, or authorised-importer contract involved - a consumer-market act, not a corporate decision.27 The Israeli-registered “McLarens Israel Ltd” is a branch of the unrelated McLarens Global insurance/loss-adjusting group, legally and commercially distinct from McLaren Automotive; the name overlap is coincidental.1718 No revenue, profit, or royalty flow from Israeli market activity to McLaren Automotive or its shareholders was identified.27

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified that political engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict forms any part of McLaren’s stated corporate mission, or that McLaren Automotive, McLaren Racing, or McLaren Group Holdings has issued any statement, lobbied any government, or made any political donation concerning Israel, Palestine, or Gaza.2637 No public evidence identified that McLaren has operations, facilities, or logistics partnerships in Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, or Israeli settlements.15 McLaren does not appear on the BDS Movement’s priority corporate-target list, the USCPR boycott list, or the Ethical Consumer Palestine boycott list, and no BDS or equivalent campaign targeting McLaren by name was identified.191120

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The two identified political-adjacent context points are owner-level, not McLaren-brand acts: both Abu Dhabi (CYVN/L’imad) and Bahrain (Mumtalakat) are Abraham Accords states with diplomatic and trade ties to Israel, and Group Chairman H.E. Jassem Al Zaabi’s other role as an Abu Dhabi state official is likewise flagged as owner/state-level context rather than a McLaren corporate position.323314 McLaren Racing’s official 2026 sponsors include Stratasys (dual US/Israeli headquarters) and Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi’s state carrier); both are characterised in the underlying audit as commercial sponsorship/procurement relationships with no political dimension specific to Israel/Palestine, not endorsements.838 McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown’s only conflict-adjacent public remark concerned operational safety for a 2026 Bahrain test in light of US-Israel strikes on Iran - a logistics/safety comment, not a political statement.39 A widely circulated 2024 statement on Gaza/Israel by Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton concerns a different, non-McLaren driver and is not attributable to McLaren.40 McLaren’s CSR disclosures address environmental sustainability, diversity, and Modern Slavery Act compliance, with no Israel/Palestine advocacy content identified.26

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score (V4)

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital1.501.501.000.05
Economic1.000.500.500.01
Political2.001.502.000.12

The score is driven almost entirely by Political (V_MAX = 0.12), which registers modest Impact and Proximity values for owner-level political context (Abraham Accords-state ownership, a dual-HQ Israeli sponsor) rather than any McLaren-brand political act. Military registers zero across all three factors, reflecting a complete absence of direct or indirect military-sector evidence. Digital and Economic register only marginal, low-magnitude vendor- and supply-chain-adjacent findings. The composite BRS of 8 places McLaren in Tier E (Minimal) - the lowest severity band - consistent with a company whose only documented Israel-linked exposure runs through arms-length technology vendors and a hardware supplier, not through McLaren’s own conduct.

Method: scores are computed via a scale-free formula combining Impact (I, activity-type severity), Magnitude (M, scale of the activity), and Proximity (P, directness of McLaren’s involvement) per domain; the overall BRS aggregates the maximum domain score (V_MAX) with a discounted sum of the remaining domains (Sum_OTHERS). All inputs are evidence-only, drawn exclusively from the four domain audits, and were human-vetted to remove unverified or wrong-entity attributions before finalisation.

Methodology Note

End Notes

Footnotes

  1. https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2024/m05/mclaren-formula-1-team-leverages-cisco-security-portfolio-as-part-of-expanded-partnership.html 2 3 4 5 6

  2. https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/mclaren-gemini/ 2 3 4 5

  3. https://www.whoprofits.org 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

  4. https://www.zawya.com/en/capital-markets/equities/abu-dhabis-cyvn-signs-deal-to-buy-out-mclarens-automotive-business-knt8q93d 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  5. https://www.agbi.com/finance/2026/01/abu-dhabi-transfers-stakes-in-mclaren-and-nio-to-limad/ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  6. https://www.agbi.com/business-of-sport/2025/09/bahrain-and-abu-dhabi-funds-take-full-ownership-of-mclaren/ 2 3 4 5 6 7

  7. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170123005672/en/McLaren-Racing-Signs-New-Four-Year-Partnership-Stratasys-to-Bring-Additive-Manufacturing-to-Formula-1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  8. https://www.stratasys.com/en/resources/blog/mclaren-racing-additive-manufacturing/ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  9. https://www.ohchr.org 2 3 4 5 6

  10. https://investigate.afsc.org/company/cisco-systems 2 3 4 5 6

  11. https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott 2 3 4

  12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_Automotive 2 3 4 5

  13. https://www.freshfields.com/en/our-thinking/news/news-search/2025/09/freshfields-advises-mclaren-and-mumtalakat-in-connection-with-its-acquisition-of-all-shares-in-mclaren-racing-held-by-minority-shareholders 2 3 4

  14. https://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/mclaren-group-holdings-completes-recapitalisation-and-announces-new-board/ 2 3 4 5

  15. https://cars.mclaren.press/assets/documents/original/3990-mclaren-automotive-expands-retail-network-opening-mclaren-jeddah-al-ghassan-motors-exceptional-new-showroom-complex.pdf 2 3 4 5

  16. https://cars.mclaren.com/gl_en/retailers 2

  17. https://en.checkid.co.il/company/MCLARENS+ISRAEL+LTD-MLZDNMd-513182626 2 3 4 5

  18. https://www.mclarens.co.il/en/about-us/ 2 3 4 5

  19. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethical-campaigns-boycotts/palestine-boycott-list 2 3 4

  20. https://uscpr.org/activist-resource/boycott-divestment-and-sanctions/ 2

  21. https://investigate.afsc.org/company/cisco-systems 2 3 4 5

  22. https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/cisco-systems-israel-genocide-gaza 2 3

  23. https://www.sec.gov 2 3

  24. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministry-of-defence-and-mclaren-team-up-to-drive-innovation 2 3 4

  25. https://www.importgenius.com/importers/mclaren-automotive-limited 2

  26. https://group.mclaren.com/group/about/corporate-social-responsibility/ 2 3

  27. https://autoboom.co.il/en/catalog/cars/mclaren 2 3 4 5

  28. https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1133146_mclaren-sells-applied-technology-business-to-investment-firm-greybull-capital 2

  29. https://www.carscoops.com/2022/12/mclaren-partners-with-lockheed-martin-skunk-works-for-the-design-of-future-models/ 2

  30. https://www.mclarengroup.com/key-sectors/defence 2

  31. https://www.mclarengroup.com/integrated-compliances/business-continuity-information-security 2

  32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain%E2%80%93Israel_normalization_agreement 2 3

  33. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/resilience-and-roadblocks-abraham-accords-five-years 2 3

  34. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministry-of-defence-and-mclaren-team-up-to-drive-innovation 2 3

  35. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/plasans-new-combat-vehicle-is-part-dakar-buggy-part-mclaren-f1

  36. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobileye 2

  37. https://investors.mclaren.com/group-news/2025/cyvn-holdings-completes-mclaren-transaction

  38. https://www.mclaren.com/racing/latest-news/2026/mclaren-racing-announces-etihad-airways-as-an-official-partner/ 2 3

  39. https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/48119114/f1-races-bahrain-saudi-arabia-risk-due-us-israel-attack-iran 2

  40. https://www.gpfans.com/us/f1-news/1021946/f1-lewis-hamilton-strong-statement-israel-gaza-conflict/