On the face of it, McLaren ’s latest example of sporting-corporate muscle-flexing seems a tad peculiar. Drifting away from the principles of their racing-mad founding father, quite what Bruce McLaren would have made of the papaya-clad outfit expanding into golf equipment – with Justin Rose their top-tier signing, posing alongside Lando Norris (himself a keen golfer) at a lavish Floridian launch on Wednesday – remains to be seen.

Yet group CEO Zak Brown has overseen remarkable growth in the last half-dozen years. In 2020, McLaren Racing were valued at £560m. Last September, Forbes estimated the team alone were worth approximately £4bn, behind only Mercedes and Ferrari in F1 terms.…