McLaren Racing modernises cross-border payments with Airwallex

Since its foundation in 1963, McLaren Racing has pioneered the competitive world of Formula 1, forging a formidable reputation which has seen the racing team win 12 F1 World Drivers’ Championships and 8 Constructors’ Championships.

In early 2024, Airwallex and McLaren Racing announced an official partnership. On the track, Airwallex would appear prominently on the halo of the team’s F1 cars, driver apparel, and other official branded material. Off the track, McLaren Racing’s finance team would use Airwallex to support cross-border financial operations.

The Challenge

McLaren Racing participates in Formula 1 races in 24 cities in the 2024 season, which they must execute with careful planning and precision. More importantly, McLaren Racing must ensure it stays within the cost cap, striking a balance between investment, expenditure, and risk. This critical task falls to Laura Bowden, CFO, and Tori McIntyre, Director, Financial Control & Analysis at McLaren Racing, supported by the wider finance team.

Performing at the limit of the cost cap

Introduced in 2021, the cost cap limits the amount teams can spend on car development, operations, and performance to ensure a more level playing field and promote competitive balance. 

“Before the cost cap, the finance team was seen as an administrative function, but we now work closely with the engineering and operations communities to ensure they can effectively deploy resources,” says Laura. 

It’s not just about the accurate deployment of funds, but finding any available financial headroom for in-season upgrades and investments by keeping close tabs on actual spend in real time. 

“Every opportunity to save is an opportunity to re-invest,” says Laura. “By constantly monitoring spend and reporting back to the business, we can find new ways to free up funds to re-invest in our on-track efforts. We need to make sure we’re always performing at the limit of the cap so we can effectively keep pace with the competition.”

Laura Bowden

CFO at McLaren Racing

“We work in a very fast and dynamic environment. You need to expect the unexpected and deal with any challenge. We need to constantly shift perspectives to bring performance to the car year-on-year. Everything needs to be seen as an opportunity. If we can unlock those opportunities, we’ll ultimately deliver performance to the track, score more points and win a Championship.”

Finding financial headroom: Tackling cross-border inefficiencies

“We all contribute to making the car go faster,” says Tori McIntyre, Director, Financial Control & Analysis, McLaren Racing. “There are over 1000 people who each contribute to putting the cars on the grid for each race. In the finance department, the smooth financial operations of the season are critical to Championship success.”

The stakes are high and the finance team knows better than many that finding marginal operational gains can have a huge impact on the organisation.

Cross-border financial operations? Notoriously inefficient.

“During the season, we make two payment runs a month to pay our suppliers in the UK and our suppliers overseas,” explains Tori. “Previously we were using the same currency account to pay both sets of suppliers. To say it was a laborious process is an understatement.”

Paying overseas suppliers in multiple currencies resulted in high foreign exchange (FX) charges, slow transfer time, and additional fees. Above all, Tori believes the biggest drawback was that each overseas payment had to be painstakingly executed one by one, taking hours a week.

“It was a time drain. Cross-border payments don’t need to be that manual or slow. On top of that, plans change, venues change, and we need to make ad hoc payments, so we have to be flexible,” says Tori.

The Solution

McLaren Racing now uses Airwallex to automate and streamline its international financial operations throughout the Grand Prix season. With Airwallex, the McLaren Racing finance team initiates, approves, and sends domestic and cross-border payments in record time with minimal human input; all from an intuitive mobile and web app. 

“Airwallex is a fantastically simple yet sophisticated platform that maximises the finance team’s time. It has solved our immediate pain points and we keep uncovering more functionality designed for a large organisation operating at a global scale,” says Tori.

Smooth operations

In a sport obsessed with shaving off hundredths of a second, it’s no wonder Tori calls out how quick and easy it was to onboard and set up their Airwallex accounts: “The whole onboarding process felt very automated and we were up and running in 14 days.”

However, the greatest impact has been how much quicker the finance team can execute payment runs. Previously, their international payments run consisted of 30 payments made one at a time, which was inefficient and time-consuming. 

With Airwallex, they’re able to seamlessly push payments through a custom approval process and execute a batch payout using a template, taking a little under an hour per run. Over the course of a month, this new process is saving the McLaren Racing finance team a good half a day.

As Tori explains: “Airwallex has saved us half a day a month, which is huge. We have the confidence to execute our international payment runs with precision and speed. We’re now expanding to use Airwallex to make domestic payments. The web app is super simple to use and logical with all the helpful features a busy finance team needs."

Ease of use also contributes to overall time efficiency. By removing manual processes, the finance team can greatly reduce the risk of human error, freeing them up to move at greater speed. Airwallex also integrates with McLaren Racing’s bank and accounting software, enabling them to transfer funds back and forth quickly; making it easier to switch between accounts and keep on top of total cash flow.

Fast, local payments

Before Airwallex, the McLaren Racing finance team’s default option was to pay their international suppliers in USD via their bank or the SWIFT network, resulting in slow transfer speeds (2-5 business days) and high transfer fees. 

With Airwallex’s end-to-end payment system, McLaren Racing enjoys competitively priced FX and an extensive local payout network. McLaren Racing now has the option to pay each global vendor in their local currency, which means those payments reach the vendor faster at a lower rate for McLaren Racing. For payments made locally, 90% of payments sent via Airwallex arrive within hours and 65% are instant.

“Being able to send payments to 150+ countries and trade 60+ currencies means we’ve got plenty of global coverage. The speed of the transfer and the status updates make the process so much smoother” says Tori.

Speed of payment has already impacted McLaren Racing’s financial operations. While event and financial planning try to accommodate all scenarios, unforeseen circumstances can derail the best laid plans and bite into the financial headroom earmarked for upgrades. 

“We have to react quickly to unforeseen events that risk destabilising the continuity of McLaren’s operations throughout the season. For these unforeseen events, the finance team must mobilise suppliers urgently, make a series of fast payments in foreign currencies, to keep the team on the road and avoid a break in service,” says Laura. 

Optimising the racing line: Improved end-to-end cashflow

By streamlining their global payout process, McLaren Racing can make purchases more quickly and with greater control over when funds leave the business. Coupling this with their future plans to leverage Airwallex for automatic and faster payment collections, McLaren Racing is improving cash flow at both ends, giving them greater financial agility.

While McLaren Racing can naturally hedge against FX exposure by collecting some revenue in overseas currencies, Laura calls out that tapping into the wholesale FX rates on the Airwallex platform is a major speed advantage.

“We’re saving an estimated £4000 (NZD$8600) on overseas transactions, and saving half a day a month of team time by using Airwallex. Those are more than marginal gains,” says Laura.

The Result

Like every other department at McLaren Racing, the finance team is mandated to look for marginal gains by constantly reviewing processes and using technology to optimise them. The switch to Airwallex has driven substantial efficiency gains:

• Account setup and onboarding in 14 days

• Half a day saved on international payment runs

• Over £4000 (NZD$8600) saved on FX fees

• Access to local payment networks in 110+ countries, with 90% arriving in hours and 65% arriving instantly

But more importantly, It goes far beyond saving on FX fees and clawing back time for the finance team. Downstream, it results in real on-track impact.

Laura Bowden

CFO at McLaren Racing

“Airwallex is a really good example of how we’re investing in technology. While our previous solution for foreign payments was very slow, manual and outdated, Airwallex is quick, easy and efficient. Not only does Airwallex save the team time, it also saves us money - it’s a win-win.”