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McLaren-Honda could split due to "a business decision"

Published on 14 Jun 2017 09:44
10
By: Fergal Walsh

McLaren CEO Zak Brown says that McLaren could be forced to split with Honda due to the business aspect of the current struggling partnership. Brown doesn't think the manufacturer's investment is worthy enough when compared to the loss in prize money and sponsors.

Honda reunited with McLaren at the start of the 2015 season, ending the Woking based team's long-term partnership with Mercedes. However, it appears that deal is set to be rekindled, as McLaren-Honda looks to divorce at the end of the season.

McLaren currently lies bottom of the constructor standings. They are yet to score points, even after Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso have been running inside the top ten on occasion this season. In Canada, Alonso was two laps away from bagging a point before his Honda engine gave up.

"I think it just becomes a business decision," Brown said. "As nice as the Honda contract is and I'm sure there's lots of teams here that would love to have the contractual relationship, at the end of the day you start losing a lot of money in prize money which is all easily documented. We lost sponsor partners to other teams.

"You've got two different types of sponsor losses, you have those that leave the sport, sometimes you don't know if that was you or the sport or circumstances, but when someone leaves a team to go to another team what that means is they are happy with the sport, they're not happy with the team.

"We've had more of those in the last couple of years than we've probably had - and maybe not statistically - in the last decade. So when you start adding that up it starts to offset the positive element of the contractual relationship with Honda where we are getting those revenues we're depositing, there's not outgoing, obviously that's not the case with a lot of the teams here."

Fergal Walsh

F1 News Fernando Alonso Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes McLaren Honda

Replies (10)

ianf1

Posts: 185
The spin doctors are hard at work already...
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- Jun 14 2017 - 10:11
talktohenry

Posts: 362
Interesting to go so public. Is he telling Honda cough up another 100m or telling them the deed of divorce has already been done! Certainly looks like bye bye Honda to me....
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- Jun 14 2017 - 11:04
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Not necessarily. To me, it looks very similar to what Red Bull tried to do with Renault: threaten them to force them to step up their game, while at the same time preparing Honda for a potential breakup. Assuming McLaren can do what Red Bull couldnt do, and find another supplier.
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  Jun 14 2017 - 18:29
renaultFanF1

Posts: 80
Sauber is going to have a ball next year. I'm sure Honda will eventually resolve their issues, but McLaren cannot wait any longer. For Sauber, it's all the same, they are in the back anyways
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- Jun 14 2017 - 11:36
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Yeah, its basically a win for them either way. And if McLaren does break up with Honda, Sauber will enjoy a year or two as a works team.
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  Jun 14 2017 - 18:30
f1fan0101

Posts: 1,804
As well as the business side, its crazy how bad the engine is full stop
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- Jun 14 2017 - 12:22
talktohenry

Posts: 362
It's also destroying the Mc Laren brand image, built on winning not breaking down...
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- Jun 14 2017 - 14:49
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
A thought: If we assume McLaren break with Honda after this year, and Honda fix their problems in 2018 and become competitive, would McLaren go back to them? Nothing is set in stone in F1, and we've seen things like that happen bfore before (more recently Toro Rosso switching between Ferrari and Renault).
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- Jun 14 2017 - 18:32
- boudy
  
  Posts: 1,168
  @CALLE.ITW
  
  Can't see that happening once mcLaren switches to Merc it opens the door for others. I just can't believe it's taken Honda this long and not to be close. The Torro Rosso switch between engine suplliers was not as bad since they were running an older version of the Ferrari engine which made it easier from a release of contract point of view. We are all asuming that Merc will sell them an engine; which is what they didn't do with RedBull. If Merc sees mcLaren af a to big a threat then the won't. mcLaren might end up like RedBull which means back with Honda.
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  Jun 15 2017 - 17:47
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Yeah, I dont either, assuming Mercedes will remain dominant it'd be silly of the o revert, but it was a thought. Im still unsure of whether McLaren will be able to convince Mercedes to supply them, Lauda certainly doesnt want a deal like that to happen. But we'll see.
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  Jun 16 2017 - 08:50