Should McLaren return to Mercedes?

[etusch]

Stick with Honda. Some might bite my head off for saying this, but Honda started bad (very bad) before then improved during the recent seasons. This time there's no token system so they can improve much earlier. Nothing technical to back my statement, but there is still a hope. Maybe Honda should turn the wick up on this engine (Friday), let the McLaren fly and bust the engine. That way the McLaren chassis can be stretched.

An off the topic idea. Let the teams test for 3 or 4 days after the last calendar race. Then teams have data on their new engine ideas before going on that forced holiday break.

It seems like all PU catch merc enough to challange with merc team except Honda. So if mcl doesnt start to season with another PU then all will be almost same power at the engine side after this season.

[Cold Fussion]

The Aero on the MCL32 looks good to me personally - not an aero expert in any way, shape or form !!

Lovely insight, thanks for sharing.

[Jolle]

I think it's good to know the history between McLaren, Mercedes and maybe even Ron Dennis. Lot's has changed.
In essence, the last good stint of McLaren, their biggest shareholder was.... Mercedes... Dennis/Haug were running the Mercedes F1 project and for instance Hamilton was more or less a Mercedes talent as much as a McLaren young driver program member. The whole 12C vs SLS changed all that and Dennis bought shares back in a scheme with promises to investors he couldn't keep and that finally was his downfall.
For now McLaren have a few options, none of them lead to direct succes. In balance, Honda still might be the best bet, but slightly risky.
- Go for Mercedes -> They have to beat Mercedes themselves, a team who was basically an unlimited budget... 100mln more or less isn't important to them, McLaren as a company is just to small to bankroll that. Ergo, they need a partner who does have unlimited funds or have a real clever design....
- Go for a McLaren designed engine or a "TAG" option -> in the mid eighties, when McLaren had the same kind of dominance with the MP4-2 as Mercedes had with their v6 was born out of a same kind of problem. Renault was taken with their own team, Ferrari same and BMW was locked with other teams. They let Porsche design an engine for the next 4 seasons (with the same kind of unlimited financial backing from Phillip Morris). In those days the BMW was a almost standerd racing engine on a production block, the Ferrari was fragile and the Renault kept blowing up. Cost were relative low and the amount of people involved as well. Now with companies as Mercedes involved, the sheer amount of engineering force is impossible to compete with.

So, who can? which companies have the resources and engineers to compete against Mercedes? Fiat might, but they even have partners like Merle to do parts of the engine. BMW is a possibility. VAG of course, Toyota, Ford and Hyundai maybe... but the list is short.

To have a chance on being a front runner again they need to be a works team. Honda is the only company who can provide them with that option for the next couple of years. But, it also depends what the new CEO and investors want. If they "had enough", and want to be at least mid field again, they could opt for a renault or mercedes. But then it would be another Williams.

[PlatinumZealot]

Can mclaren use merc engine at Melbourne. İf you can say yes then thinking about engine supplier change, and telkini about it make sense. Otherwise nonesense

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it in the rules that there are common mounting points for the engine, and that the crank has to be in the same location for all power trains? If this is the case then it isn't putting a square peg in a round hole, the biggest stumbling blocks would be if Mercedes had built enough engines to support another customer at short notice, and Mclaren's ability to pay for the Mercedes engines. Obviously this is grossly oversimplified.

The front and rear mounting points only exist on a virtual planes, and that's about that. You have oil tanks, coolers, pipes cables, fuel tank, intercoolers - you name it! - crossing those virtual planes. So one guy's fuel tank might have to be bashed in to fit another guy's engine, a pipe might have to be cut, oil line rerouted etc. So it is possible just the worst case is bashing in your fuel tank and redoing your gearbox.

[ojlopez]

McLaren have been extremely nice with Honda but I think it is time to move on. Sponsors have gone, and good drivers won't stay for too long if the team can't offer if not a winning car at least a competitive one.

[DiogoBrand]

McLaren have been extremely nice with Honda but I think it is time to move on. Sponsors have gone, and good drivers won't stay for too long if the team can't offer if not a winning car at least a competitive one.

1 - Move on to what?
2 - Sponsors were gone well before Honda
3 - They wouldn't even have a good driver if Honda didn't pay them one

[Manoah2u]

McLaren have been extremely nice with Honda but I think it is time to move on. Sponsors have gone, and good drivers won't stay for too long if the team can't offer if not a winning car at least a competitive one.

1 - Move on to what?
2 - Sponsors were gone well before Honda
3 - They wouldn't even have a good driver if Honda didn't pay them one

1 - Move to BMW
2 - Bring back Checo and Carlos Slim (After all, Dennis is gone, and Mclaren is now.....something different?!)
3 - add Kubica to the mix

BMW Mclaren F1 Team BMW M-F1.18

Robert Kubica
Sergio Perez

Instant WCC and WDC achievement unlocked!

a man can dream.
To be honest, if Kuubs never had that Rally accident, i think this would be a extremely, extremely, really extremely good combination. DO IT!!!

meanwhile, Mercedes would not be a solution in the long run, BUT it would definately be better than what's going on right now. Renault would even be.

[zac510]

I would be surprised if they go back to Mercedes. Mercedes might still be feeling a bit blue about the nice favour they did at the start of 2009 which led, through various events, to the beginning of the breakup in McLaren/Merecedes relationship. This (the latter) is not even my own opinion - it's straight out of Ross Brawn's book.

[DiogoBrand]

McLaren have been extremely nice with Honda but I think it is time to move on. Sponsors have gone, and good drivers won't stay for too long if the team can't offer if not a winning car at least a competitive one.

1 - Move on to what?
2 - Sponsors were gone well before Honda
3 - They wouldn't even have a good driver if Honda didn't pay them one

1 - Move to BMW
2 - Bring back Checo and Carlos Slim (After all, Dennis is gone, and Mclaren is now.....something different?!)
3 - add Kubica to the mix

BMW Mclaren F1 Team BMW M-F1.18

Robert Kubica
Sergio Perez

Instant WCC and WDC achievement unlocked!

a man can dream.
To be honest, if Kuubs never had that Rally accident, i think this would be a extremely, extremely, really extremely good combination. DO IT!!!

meanwhile, Mercedes would not be a solution in the long run, BUT it would definately be better than what's going on right now. Renault would even be.

Please! For the love of Odin! Tell me where BMW is hiding their super powerful super efficient super awesome formula one engine that no one heard about before!
Are you not forgetting that for McLaren to use a BMW engine, BMW must have an engine in the first place?

[Thunder]

Please! For the love of Odin! Tell me where BMW is hiding their super powerful super efficient super awesome formula one engine that no one heard about before!

BMW Motorsport
Anton-Ditt-Bogen 20
80939 München

That's where i would start searching.....

[Sevach]

McLaren have been extremely nice with Honda but I think it is time to move on. Sponsors have gone, and good drivers won't stay for too long if the team can't offer if not a winning car at least a competitive one.

1 - Move on to what?
2 - Sponsors were gone well before Honda
3 - They wouldn't even have a good driver if Honda didn't pay them one

1 - Move to BMW
2 - Bring back Checo and Carlos Slim (After all, Dennis is gone, and Mclaren is now.....something different?!)
3 - add Kubica to the mix

BMW Mclaren F1 Team BMW M-F1.18

Robert Kubica
Sergio Perez

Instant WCC and WDC achievement unlocked!

a man can dream.
To be honest, if Kuubs never had that Rally accident, i think this would be a extremely, extremely, really extremely good combination. DO IT!!!

meanwhile, Mercedes would not be a solution in the long run, BUT it would definately be better than what's going on right now. Renault would even be.

If a manufacturer is looking to enter F1 (BMW in this example) no doubt they'll look for Red Bull as their first option not Mclaren.

[Manoah2u]

@diego Offcourse i know that, wishfull thinking obviously.

[APvortex723]

I'd say stay with Honda as well. Especially for this season. Look at Renault last year trying to fit the engine into a car designed for a Merc engine. Also one thing for sure is Honda takes it very seriously and will work hard to fix it. It just seems they're trying to do too much at one time or find that magic bullet. Biting more than they can chew. First it was the size-zero project, now redoing everything again. Bound to run into technical issues.

Let Honda get it together, Im not saying it's acceptable how they've done. But the last thing McLaern needs to do is ruin that relationship at the beginning of the season

[santos]

But the last thing McLaern needs to do is ruin that relationship at the beginning of the season

Ins't it ruined already? I know they haven't done a race yet, but all this talk must have hurt them bad.

[APvortex723]

I mean it hasnt been great. But it hasn't hit full RBR/Renault from 2014. And what has been said they need to sit down and put it behind them. Neither of them will make any progress in a hostile environment. Like I said, I don't think its acceptable how Honda has done.