OT: The struggles of McLaren-Honda

Calibre11
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dsio dsio
Dave, imagine the irony of after being dogged by broken Honda power units for three years, McLaren switch to Alfa Romeo in the pursuit of reliability.

When you're saying I need to dump my Honda and get an Alfa Romeo so I can have a car I can depend on, things are dire in Japan.

When you put it like that 😉 Yeah, I can't see it happening, as it seems far more likely that it will be Mercedes McLaren again.

I'm not sure who would be the right partner for an Alfa badged engine. Toro Rosso doesn't really fit the bill?
 
Calibre11
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WernerBoeinck WernerBoeinck
Next wish: Porsche will participate in the Next meeting of the Engine Working Group. In the past, a McLaren-Porsche (TAG) Family was not too bad...
True



(lets' forget that Arrows/ Footwork project 🙁 . How could you combine Alboreto, Stefan Johansson, Alan Jenkins AND Porsche and come up with such a dog??? )
 
Big Adam
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Pitfitter446 Pitfitter446
Does this mean a Seat badge on the McLaren next?
It's about as competitive as an Alhambra! But at least it's now scored points! 😗
 
Calibre11
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The other interesting development is the strong rumour that Sauber has backed out of its Honda engine deal for next year...hard to imagine that F1 would be happy with Honda not having a team, so who knows where this will lead:
- McLaren to keep Honda?
- Honda to stay in F1 but sit out racing for a year (keep their McLaren deal, but allow the team to use a customer engine- maybe badge the Ferrari engine as "Mugen")
- Another team to pick up Honda? Toro Rosso?

I'd bet on the second one..McLaren get to keep the cash, and Honda find a way to save face and get the engine working properly.
 
Hubert
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Interesting choices. As we've been reading, there are lots of factors to consider.

But given the disastrous track record for last years, if I were managing an F1 team, I'd get as far away from those Honda engines as possible. 🙁
 
Calibre11
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Hubert Hubert
Some Alonso / McLaren news:
http://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-encouraged-after-alonso-sit-down/
Hard to see Alonso staying if Honda stick around..but where else is he going to go?
- Mercedes? Maybe. Be worth it, just to see Lewis explode
- Ferrari- have said no
- Red Bull- have two drivers under contract (although a lot of noise about Max)
- Renault- sounds like they are about to drop Palmer for Sainz...would Alonso want to head back to Renault? Feels a year or two too early
- Rest- no...may as well go to Indy/ they couldn't afford him

Not a lot of choices. If I was Red Bull, I'd think about letting one of my guys go to Ferrari (given I might lose them anyway) and getting some cash from Maranello to pay for Alonso.
 
Hubert
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Calibre11 Calibre11
Hard to see Alonso staying if Honda stick around..but where else is he going to go?
- Mercedes? Maybe. Be worth it, just to see Lewis explode
- Ferrari- have said no
- Red Bull- have two drivers under contract (although a lot of noise about Max)
- Renault- sounds like they are about to drop Palmer for Sainz...would Alonso want to head back to Renault? Feels a year or two too early
- Rest- no...may as well go to Indy/ they couldn't afford him

Not a lot of choices. If I was Red Bull, I'd think about letting one of my guys go to Ferrari (given I might lose them anyway) and getting some cash from Maranello to pay for Alonso.
Good theories. Alonso seems to be a lot less anxious in the last few weeks, so maybe he has already decided to stay. We'll just have to see how this unfolds.
 
WernerBoeinck
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Calibre11 Calibre11
Hard to see Alonso staying if Honda stick around..but where else is he going to go?
- Mercedes? Maybe. Be worth it, just to see Lewis explode
- Ferrari- have said no
- Red Bull- have two drivers under contract (although a lot of noise about Max)
- Renault- sounds like they are about to drop Palmer for Sainz...would Alonso want to head back to Renault? Feels a year or two too early
- Rest- no...may as well go to Indy/ they couldn't afford him

Not a lot of choices. If I was Red Bull, I'd think about letting one of my guys go to Ferrari (given I might lose them anyway) and getting some cash from Maranello to pay for Alonso.

6th place in Hungary would play for Alonso...
 
Calibre11
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Hubert Hubert
Motorsport.com: Sainz's Renault switch agreed as McLaren deal looms.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sainz-renault-switch-str-mclaren-honda-951146/

Yes, it seems like it's all falling in to place now- Sainz to Renault, Honda to T.R and Renault to McLaren.

You'd think that Alonso will stay...not sure there is anywhere else for him to go.

Very smart by Red Bull- if the engine continues to be a dud, then no-one will really care that T.R is at the back of the grid, and if they do manage to get it working, then they just swap the supply over to the main team. There were reports that Honda was tipping $100m into McLaren for their F1 budget, so hope the McLaren marketing team are on their toes...
 
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