Every tour that McLaren cuts towards the summit is a new step that enhances Bahrain’s position, and proves that the approach led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Prime Minister, transcended the traditional concept of development, to make a national economy that resonates to the fields of the world.
Since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the Prime Minister, led the project to host the first Formula One race in the Middle East in 2004, he realized that sport could be an investment platform and a bridge for international influence.
Today, after two decades of that bold beginning, the McLaren team – owned by the Bahrain Holding Company – is crowned the Formula One World Championship title for the second year in a row, to put Bahrain at the top of the sports and industrial scene, and embodies the results of the economic vision led by His Highness the Crown Prince, which made economic and sports thought wings in the national development process.
The “property” of the practical embodiment of this vision was when it turned investment in “McLaren” into an economic and moral influence project. When the restructuring stage entered the most difficult periods, the goal was not only to save a racing team, but to establish a model for sustainable investment that links the financial return with the national return.
The past few years have also proven that the Bahraini investment in “McLaren” was a mature strategic decision, which is the fruits of today in the fields of the economy as in the race of the race.
The team’s successive successes and the escalating market value, and its transformation into a global platform for technical and marketing innovation, confirms that Bahrain is a pioneer in global sports investment, and that “property” has become among the most important sovereign funds in the region and the world.
Today, Bahrain does not celebrate a new title, but rather a milestone in its economic and sports career, and a vision created from the passion industry, and from the dream a reality, and from sport a soft economic power that draws the features of the future.
Abdullah Ilhami
