McLaren enters professional cycling with Bahrain-Merida

McLaren will enter the world of professional cycling after announcing a joint venture with Team Bahrain-Merida.

The deal will see McLaren apply its racing know-how to the cycling team, which counts 2014 Tour de France winner Vicenzo Nibali among its riders.

Both the racing and cycling teams are Bahraini-owned, McLaren by the country's sovereign wealth fund and Bahrain-Merida by Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa of the Bahrain royal family.

The project will be run through McLaren Applied Technologies (MAT), which sits as part of the McLaren Group alongside the racing team and works across a number of different industries. MAT has worked on cycling projects before with Team GB ahead of the 2012…