Hamilton/McLaren/Mercedes - an interesting tidbit of information

Auto Bild (=take with a grain of salt) reports that Mercedes will cut the engine supply for McLaren and Honda will take over in 2014. They claim that Hamilton knew of that before, as early as June, and that him not trusting the performance of the new Honda engine was the key for signing with Mercedes.
They didn't mention how Hamilton knew that, but it's not difficult to imagine that Mercedes gave him that info during their negotiations.

If true, this would be an important factor that we didn't consider yet in our ongoing "WHY?" speculation about Hamilton's change of horses

 

I thought this speculation has been out there from the get go. Even Speed threw this out early after the announcement....Matchett speculated that might be a reason for Ham's move.

 

And I thought I brought some fresh news No, seriously - Auto Bild reported it not as a rumour or speculation, but as a hard fact.

 

I don't think Honda is in play right now.But for sure Merc is gonna cut off Mclaren
Hence the motivator for Lewis to jump ship which I think is the right thing to do

 

I've been saying this FOREVER!

Mercedes needs to stop giving engines to McLaren if they want to get serious about winning the WDC and WCC with their factory squad.

I also think McLaren is going to see a significant dip in competitiveness in the next few years. (No "top-echelon" driver, possibly losing engine supply, team hasn't won a WCC since 1998 despite having one of the best cars for nearly all of those years).

This could see them back to 1994-1997 levels. Just a hunch I have.

 

Who's to say Honda will build a crap engine.

 

This is fascinating stuff. That being said, I think if Honda plans to come back in 2014,
they need, or they *should* be working on the V6 Turbo by now; if not, they are going
to be behind since Ferrari and Mercedes already have the engines ran at the bench.
That is a year or more ahead if Honda is just planning this now. I'm not sure how
relevant their previous engine efforts can be brought to the new formula. Their last
turbo engines were with the Williams and McLaren in the 80's, right?

One thing for sure is that Honda will improve year after year.

 

McLaren's engine supply contract with Merc runs thru 2015
I see them switching to Honda after that - Only if V-6 engine
rules remain in place otherwise Honda will not pursue F1

 

Then Honda has plenty of time to catch up. They have all the resources for having
a Turbo V6 ready by 2016. I don't see why McLaren should have a serious dip in
performance (driver aside) since there is lots of time to do the engine switch.

One question arises then: with the limited testing every year, how are they going to start
testing the new engines in 2013? Will they have to use the testing sessions for both
2013 spec cars and 2014 V6 turbo's as well? Or will be there more sessions specific
for testing the new engines gearing towards 2014?

 

+1.

Why would Hamilton care which engine pushes his car? After all his Mercedes engine is not leading the WDC at the moment and hasn't for quite a while. I still believe LH left to break the umbillical cord.
Pete

 

Their last engine sucked.

 

The last time Honda worked with McLaren they didn't suck...but...I'd worry about how McLaren works with a new engine supplier and how the'd together develop a racecar.

If the 1990's Ford/Peugeot programs are any indication of things to come, I say Perez's career will stall, Button's career will end and LH made the right move.

 

I still have nightmares of their turbo'd engines from the 80s

They were ear-piercing and if you didn't wear earmuffs your ears could bleed

 

If Honda returns now, it´s going to be the worst idea in the history of car industry: first they spent millions without winning anything, then spent even more in a car that finally succeded but without their stickers on it, and now they want to spend millions again to return just a few years later.

 

+1

I'd rather have a slightly lower powered engine and be with a team which are proven winners, and quick at solving a problem AND knowing how to make a car go quick than a team that has had 2 seasons of unfulfilled promises and are quickly going backwards with every new part they put on.

It's Honda (apparently) back as an engine supplier, not a team.

 

Don't the engineer makers have to supply a certain number of other teams?
If MB pulls its engines from Macca will they have to sell to another team?

 

Do not forget Williams Honda was Turbo engined and V6.

 

Martin Brundle mentioned during one of the races that he thinks it's not so much that Lewis left, but that he was told to leave.
Contract negotiations probably weren't going well (maybe they felt lewis was demanding too much). Brundle thinks it was the release of the telemetry data at Spa that was the final straw for McLaren.

He isn't going to go to Ferrari. Red Bull already signed their drivers. Lotus probably can't afford him. So he went knocking at Merc's door.

 

David Hobbs mentioned this during the broadcast during the last race - anyone else catch it? He expressed incredulity with Lewis leaving McLaren, then briefly theorized that perhaps Lewis "knew something" about Mercedes, possibly the engine supply to McLaren.

Honestly, while it's a long shot that Mercedes is going to make a winning car next year, it was a long shot when Red Bull got into the sport as well, and a long shot that Honda would have gotten it in '09. And McLaren have shot themselves in the foot year after year. How many times have they had the fastest car at some point during the season, and failed to keep a lead? How many stupid mistakes in the last several years?

At some point, a driver must get really tired of dealing with that.

 

It's about the money. Lewis' new management is looking to brand him but McLaren will not allow its drivers to have individual sponsorship (Senna was the only one to do it with Banco Nationale and that was never officially sanctioned).

 

wow....what a bunch of experts.

 

Lewis went to Merc because of Ross Brawn.He will put a championship effort
together.The reason why Merc has a crap car is when they first bought the
team their budget was smaller than the other teams and thought they can
do just as good But that turned out WRONG hence the crap seasons. Now
they will be ALL in pursuing the championship.

 

BrawnGP won a WDC when they had an even smaller budget. They were then bought by Mercedes.

Hugh budgets does not necessarily mean success, just ask Toyota.
Pete

 

Aw go kiss a wombat.

 

at least add ...."in my opinion" or something!!

You don't know the first thing about they whys and wherefores apart from what you read in the press...and since when are they right? 50/50?