Ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, one story is set to dominate the conversation as McLaren’s split with Honda to join Renault for 2018 is set to be announced.
The ramifications are already being discussed as to whether it is a switch that will benefit the British team, with many believing the performance of Red Bull is a reason for optimism that can see them become competitive once again.
Upon hearing of the deal, however, former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone would blame McLaren for the failure of the Honda partnership after doubting whether much would change with the French manufacturer.
“The Renault deal is all done. Alonso staying is super news,” he was reported by the Daily Mail as saying. “But I can’t see why McLaren will be any happier with Renault than they are with Honda.
“It wasn’t Honda’s fault things didn’t work out, it was McLaren’s. Every day they had a fight about everything, instead of working with them, which was a little bit stupid.”
Ultimately, while McLaren was setting Honda a near-impossible task of trying to build an engine capable of fighting with Mercedes with technology that is ground-breaking, the inability to produce a power unit that was simply reliable and had a reasonable amount of performance was the reason the partnership was becoming increasingly untenable.
Will that change with Renault? It’s hard to say as they too have had their own share of reliability problems and will struggle to close the gap to the leading two suppliers in the next few years, but McLaren will at least have a better chance of more consistent and stronger results than they would with Honda.
Meanwhile, at Red Bull, the arrival of Honda at junior team Toro Rosso is also leading to speculation that perhaps both teams could move over if the Japanese manufacturer gets their act together.
Yet that is now being overshadowed by rumours the Milton Keynes operation could be bought by Porsche and run as a full works team from 2021, with the German carmaker expected to join as an engine supplier.
Motorsport magazine and Sky Sports contributor Mark Hughes is reporting the team would unlikely change much in terms of personnel, with Christian Horner remaining as Team Principal and the current design team would also remain in place.
However, operations out of the engine factory in Weissach would be linked to those in the UK in the same way Renault operate with their engine plant in Viry in France.
“Red Bull might consider that its F1 programme of the last decade has achieved its marketing aims and that it no longer needs the vast expense of running an F1 team (or even two of them),” Hughes wrote. “It could continue as a sponsor to the works Porsche team and benefit from that association, but without anything like the same current spend.”
The two companies have also linked up previous in endurance racing with Mark Webber and Brendan Hartley both Red Bull-backed drivers who have driven for Porsche in the WEC, while current Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko won at Le Mans with the company in 1971.
Does this speculation mean the Toro Rosso/ Honda tie up is purely to satisfy the FIA, who want to see the Japanese manufacturer remain in F1? Or is Honda a serious alternative the Austrian drinks giant could consider in the years to come? Either way, it’s an interesting first path leading to the likely circus that will be the engine market for 2021.
