McLaren approaches Mercedes amid engine woes

New reports are revealing that McLaren has contacted former engine partner Mercedes with a view to a potential reconciliation, as its Honda power unit continues to cause the team various mechanical headaches.

These hindered McLaren significantly during pre-season testing in Barcelona - it completed the fewest number of laps by far, missing out on crucial mileage, and ranked ninth of ten teams on the overall timesheets. The BBC says that the difficulties have now led McLaren to consider what it should do for 2018 and beyond, and it has already had what is described as an "informal and brief" approach to Mercedes.

The team previously used engines from the German company between 1995 and 2014, a period in which it won the 1998 constructors' championship as well as drivers' titles with Mika Hakkinen (in 1998 and 1999) and Lewis Hamilton (in 2008). If McLaren was to resurrect this partnership and reunite with Mercedes, it would have to work hard to find an exit from its current multi-year agreement with Honda.

Racing Director Eric Boullier recently spoke about the problems with the Honda engine in an interview with Spain's AS, saying: "We're having more problems than we expected. We knew that we'd encounter some things (in testing), but truly not as many as we're seeing. We're always working to reduce the (number) of problems and to be able to go faster."

Amid concerns that the issues could drive Fernando Alonso away from the team, Boullier continued: "He wants to be competitive because he has talent to show the world and to himself, and we need to be competitive to keep him happy. If we're competitive we'll be happy and if not he'll take his own decisions..." Boullier was then asked whether his team would be winning races with a Mercedes engine, to which he replied: "I think we would."

Mason Hawker