London: Mclaren’s dramatic downward spiral from powerful Formula One pacemakers to hapless also-rans in their 50th year could be rescued by a re-marriage to engine giants Honda.
The tie-up after a series of top secret negotiations has been finalised and the intention is for McLaren to ditch current suppliers Mercedes in preference for the Japanese power unit and set about the 2015 season with fresh hopes, massive financial expenditure and engineering expertise second to none.
McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale, anxious to restore his Grand Prix team’s pride as a frontrunner, has revealed that even through the Mercedes era of supply, he has stayed in touch with the Honda hierarchy. “We have maintained contact with them over many years,” he says, “and gradually over a matter of months rather than years, a few senior players started speculative dicussions. Those conversations really only materialised over a relatively short time”.
There had been plenty of speculation about Honda’s entry for the second year of the new engine formula — 2015. Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes will all have a year’s advantage with the new 1.6-litre V6 turbos while Honda plays catch up. It would be a shock if, as in their glorious past, Honda does not quickly overtake its rivals on the engine development front and win races and titles.
It is not a matter of IF but WHEN.
Austrian ex-racer Gerhard Berger, a winner in the McLaren-Honda in 1990-92, hails the revisiting of the partnership and enthuses:”It is the best thing Honda could have done. A superb move. They are packed with great engineers and experts in all other departments,too.
“Honda is special. They are technically orientated and excellent in every sense. With McLaren they will be winners again. Give them a season to get on song with the new engine problems compared with the other manufacturers and they will be right up there.
“I am really looking forward to their comeback. The last time they came in they did it all wrong — it wasn’t the right time with the bad economic situation in Japan. But when I worked with them they were on top of their game. The exciting aspect is that McLaren and Honda afre perfect partners — they are two companies that put massive effort, excellence and expertise into everything they do.
“Honda have been much more committed to their F1 programmes than any manufacturer I ever worked with. They feel an urgency to prove themselves to the world. If they lag behind they pile in more resources and experts, and do things properly, until they are the best. In my time with them it was seamless.”
Yasuhisa Arai, the senior managing officer and director of Honda Racing and Development, revealed it was the new regulations that triggered the company’s decision. “We felt that the environmental technology and Formula One, the absolute pinnacle of motorsport,are converging to create this new racing. It is this good and positive direction that inspired us to come back to the grand prix scene.”
Some day very soon Honda have planned, in secret, to fire up their power unit. “It is going to involve lots of technical elements to ensure it all works to our and McLaren’s total satisfaction,” added Arai. “When we withdrew from F1 last time, we were in a way forced to pull out because of the difficult financial situation placed on Honda as a company at that time. We didn’t want to — we had no choice.”
That was in 2000 as an engine supplier to the BAR team - and for two years with Jordan — but after two dismal seasons, amid that backdrop of economic setbacks, they quit. In its nine-year stint, it managed only one win...the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix for Jenson Button. And the paddock feeling was that they made two of the worst cars in GP racing with their 2007 and 2008 challengers.
What they can look back on with satisfaction is their massively successful alliance with McLaren — four world drivers’ titles, four constructors’ championships, as well as 44 Grand Prix victories from 1988 to 1992.
Nobody in Formula One would argue that they cannot get back to their winning ways. And pretty quickly.
— The writer is a motorsport expert based in the UK.
