Mclaren Honda heading for a divorce for 2018

Ok... Zak Brown needs to STFU.

If he thinks embarrassing and threatening Honda in public is going to help the situation he's completely wrong.

Say it behind closed doors but not in public. His strategy seems to be to embarrass them as much as possible while the polite Japanese take it and smile.

And, Brown has zero credibility. When the McLaren has problems not associated with the engine, he says nothing. Its just another "McLaren HONDA problem"

Alonso parked his car once just to not be running last. Another DNF was Alonso involved in an incident late in the race. Yesterday there was a hydraulic leak that stopped Alonso. Was that an engine problem? I seriously doubt it.

Then there's his love affair with Honda and Indy. Sure... when Honda pays for Alonso to race at Indy with a McLaren label stuck on a Dallara he's in love with them. As soon at that race is over he's back to threatening to leave them again.

Which is it Zak?

 

McLaren to ditch Honda engines and switch to Mercedes | Daily Mail Online

 

They will never get the same version of the works team engine

 

No but they will get an engine that can finish a race. The Mercedes customer cars(Williams and Force India) looked strong in Montreal.

 

Fantastic news for McLaren if true. Sorry Honda, but time has run out and you are officially hopeless.

 

They may not need it to actually win on some occasion. Do you have a better idea LOL. Its that or make your own...id take the Mercedes PU and be happy.

 

+1

It is a tough choice though. Now they have to pay out of their own pocket again for driver and engines...With no sponsors still.

They'll never challenge for a title with the Merc engine so long Mercedes is competitive.

IMO they have to find the funds to build their own engine for 2020 when they'll be simplified. They can actually afford it then. I don't think independent manufacturers (Cosworths of this world) will touch Mclaren for a 2020 engine...

 

Next year you will see a Honda in the back of a McLaren

What you won't see is an Alonso in the seat of at McLaren.


All this Merc talk is just talk to put more pressure on Honda, as if they needed any.

 

JUNE 13, 2017

No information about Honda upgrade



Rumours are growing by the day that the works McLaren-Honda partnership is now definitely doomed.

It seems the final straw for the British team was Montreal, where Honda failed to deliver on a promise to upgrade its woefully unreliable and underperforming power unit.

Then, Fernando Alonso retired within sight of the team's first point of 2017.

"It's difficult to find the words to express our disappointment, our frustration and our sadness," said team boss Eric Boullier.

"It's simply and absolutely not good enough."

Once a believer in Honda's potential, key team driver Alonso's message in Canada was that while McLaren is ready to win, the Japanese marque may never be.

"After 16 years, it doesn't change my life to win a point or not, but we have to start scoring for the work that the mechanics do day and night, changing many engines," he said.

So after the new engine did not arrive in Montreal, perhaps it will be ready for Baku next weekend.

"I do not have information about the improvement of the engine," the Spaniard told the Movistar broadcaster. "I do not work for Honda and I'm not an engine designer."

Alonso is also quoted by Blick newspaper: "I am of course frustrated, but especially at this time for McLaren, who always give me a top car which is then attacked by everyone on the straight."

 

Alonso must have been somewhat frustrated staring at the back of rookie Lance Stroll in the Merc powered Williams..lap after lap.

It's a bit unfortunate that no one else appears want him in their team at the moment....

 

And of course there's the fact that Alonso had a serious shot at winning Indy until his Honda engine quit on him.

 

Someone did an analysis that if the Mclaren had Mercedes power, it would have been 3rd on the grid. Food for thought.

 

+1


Surely, in the last 3 years McLaren would have done better with a Mercedes engine than a Honda one.

That's no brainer.

 

Absolutely true.

I'm staggered that Honda still hasn't got them working but that just goes to show how complicated these engines are I guess.

Not to get into a which engine configuration do we need debate, but if they where simpler (i.e. same turbo V6 and a pre-2014 KERS system) they would've made a competitive engine by now, and Mclaren's engine switch would have been very wise indeed. Hell I think Red Bull would probably have their own engine, too.

 

That's a BS study..probably made by someone in woking....
Obviouly they would be a lot better but no way they would beat Mercedes factory team....theyr situation is rally, really hard, because they can get a lot better, but they can'y win teh title with a costumer engine....except if they made a super exceptionel chassis, far better tahn anyone else...and quite dfrankly, at best they have the 4th best chassis, wich i doubt.

 

Better Idea is make your own and have Honda pay the bill and not get involved on a technical basis

 

yap, just like tag did with porsche back in 83

 

Will we ever know the epic story that is the current failure of Honda in modern F1? Year after year drastically underwhelming performance to crescendo into a season of literal catostrophic failure at every race. When McLaren / Honda first announced their partnership it sounded so formidable. Has there EVER been a better example of past performance not being indicative of future results.

 

The numbers looked convincing, to me.

Lets not forget Monaco...Vandoorne, unfortunately, is not having a stellar year and even he managed to get into Q3. Button came back, NO testing done, zero hours in the car and he managed to qualify 9th, his best time just 2 tenths of 5th place Ricciardo...I've little doubt that with a bit of extra power he'd have found those 2 tenths, or if Alonso was driving it, his experience of this car would qualify him there as well.

The Honda has a 90bhp deficit over Mercedes. That's about 10%.

 

Honda was playing tricks with the power.

 

Actually,... hp deficit more often than not reaches 100%.

 

the problem for Honda is it's not "apples" to "apples".

If they measure at top performance it might just be 10%. But in reality the Honda fuel mileage is a problem so they have to dial it back even more in the race.

Alonso had that problem in Montreal. After about half the race they have to dial back which is why he complains so much in the second half of each race.

 

Link? Would like to read that.

 

Call Eric Bouillier..he did the study...

 

I don't think there's anything more damaging to Honda's reputation than not being able to build an engine that can finish a race... AFTER 2 SEASONS. And to make matters worse, they're still underpowered, so it's not like they were tuned too aggressively. They built their reputation on reliability. And now that hey have mostly ugly cars, it won't help. The good news (my guess) is a very small percentage of their buying public follow F1 or Indy, but as a previous all-Honda household (a while back), they're not what they used to be in both innovation and reliability.