Despite calling time on their partnership after three years, McLaren has left the door open to working with Honda again in the future with Executive Director Zak Brown claiming “never say never”.
The rebirth of one of the most dominant collaborations in Formula 1 history in 2015 was meant to signal the start of the British team’s return to the top after failing to win a championship since 2008, with one of the founders of the current team Ron Dennis believing McLaren couldn’t be successful as a customer.
Instead, with the Honda project a year or more behind their engine rivals, it has been a struggle to catch up and be competitive with the new man in charge Brown pulling the plug after three years.
Despite that decision, the American insists not all bridges have been burned with the Japanese manufacturer and, with changes to the engines expected for 2021, another future project can’t be ruled out.
“Oh of course, absolutely. They’re a great company, we’ve won a few world championships with them, they know what they’re doing,” he said to Sky Sports on whether he’d work with Honda again. “For a variety of reasons, we kind of didn’t get it right this time but we’ve maintained a good relationship, so definitely never say never in this sport.”
Towards the end of the season, there were signs Honda could be getting their engine back on track, with Fernando Alonso scoring points in the final three races.That was after the agreement to split, however, with the McLaren boss suggesting the outlook remained bleak.
“Ultimately we knew we were in trouble in testing in Barcelona, we worked really hard for six months to try and find some solutions that give us some confidence that we would be much more competitive in 2018 and ultimately, after trying many different things, many different ways, all of which were reported on, we felt that we couldn’t get there,” he explained.
“Three years is a long time in Formula 1 so we needed to change directions to get our team back on top. The decision we made is one we believe is the right one for McLaren. We are grateful to Honda, the relationship still is strong and we wouldn’t rule out racing with them again.
“We wish them the best but we needed to make some tough decisions to do what’s in our best interest.”
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Now though, the focus is on a new chapter which sees the great British team work with Renault for the first time in their history and expectations are high that it can signal a return to winning ways.
“We’re going to try really hard! They’re going to like how the car will look like, we’ll have new partners on board and we think we’ll have a competitive race car,” Brown replied when asked what fans can expect in 2018.
“I think we’ll see Fernando and Stoffel racing each other hard, and that will be exciting as long as they don’t touch each other or take each other off! Hopefully we’re fighting for podiums, I hope that’s the top step.
“It’s going to be very difficult, Mercedes and Ferrari and Red Bull are awesome teams that have significant budgets. We’re going to chase them hard, and hopefully spray some champagne at the end of the day!”
This year also saw the return of the traditional orange livery McLaren were famous for in their early years but changes could be afoot for next season.
“Well a little bit is going to depend on where we land with the sponsors,” Brown added. “We’ve signed a few, we’ll start announcing in January but I think the car won’t look like it did this year.”
