What if, McLaren goes it solo?

[WhiteBlue]

At this time of the year it almost looks like Merc will get bigger bang for their bucks out of the scraps thrown into Brawn GP than the fortunes invested into McLaren. That may soon change in the course of the season but Brawn are also more committed to lower cost and higer innovation, it appears.

So what if Merc suddenly decides to desinvest from McLaren and put some eggs into the other basket?

What are your thoughts?

[RacingManiac]

I think this question is better asked after the season starts.....

McLaren is likely not as slow as it appeared, and Brawn is not as fast as it appeared. But we won't know until at least the first session of quali in Australia, and the big picture at least til the start of the Europe swing.....there are tons of hype and speculation right now, as with any other pre-season with the highly misleading testing time......

[Rob W]

As you say, Merc owns a big chunk of McLaren so I can't see them going it solo in reality. It would be a hard call to try to sell their investment I imagine - especially this year. Better to knuckle down and consolidate, cut costs etc.

I'm sure their initial investment was done in-part to show a commitment to the team and sport (an issue Williams was struggling with at the time as well) well beyond pure sponsorship.

[axle]

It would damage both company's badly to pull out of McLaren on the basis of one bad car.

Fortunately Mercedes have a slightly less knee jerk, headless chicken, panicing reaction to things like this.

They will be pleased to have their engines at the front with Brawn (based on testing pace) but and will be conscious that the WDC fight last year distracted the McLaren team from it's 2009 preparations.

Mercedes' reaction will be to work as a team to fix the problems that have hit the team and push forward....not childishly run away to greener grass.

[Ciro Pabón]

I'm with Axle, Rob and Racing Maniac. I think Mercedes will, like us, wait and see. We have the BMW/Williams precedent. BMW did not pull out just because of one winter test season, it took a year for them to rethink their strategy.

However, Brawn starts the year by looking more efficient. I'm sure Mercedes took note already.

Finally, every test day is another nail in the coffin for 2009 McLaren.

I know some people thinks Brawn is running an "under-ballasted" car, but if it were so easy to do, I bet McLaren would have tried the same already, just to calm investors and compare the cars.

That, or McLaren is pulling the trick of the year.

[PNSD]

Quite a silly thing to suggest...

Did Mclaren do the same when Mercedes were letting them down with extremley unreliabile engines no?

The relationship is very deep, you can be assured that they will be together for as long as they are not one.

[timbo]

Quite a silly thing to suggest...

Did Mclaren do the same when Mercedes were letting them down with extremley unreliabile engines no?

The relationship is very deep, you can be assured that they will be together for as long as they are not one.

That is true, however, most recently the collaboration between McLaren and Daimler appeared to be less tight - there won't be new Mercedes-McLaren SLR, both companies work on their own projects. There's spy fotos of new road McLaren and rumours of new grand-tourismo type car from Mercedes.

[Conceptual]

Quite a silly thing to suggest...

Did Mclaren do the same when Mercedes were letting them down with extremley unreliabile engines no?

The relationship is very deep, you can be assured that they will be together for as long as they are not one.

That is true, however, most recently the collaboration between McLaren and Daimler appeared to be less tight - there won't be new Mercedes-McLaren SLR, both companies work on their own projects. There's spy fotos of new road McLaren and rumours of new grand-tourismo type car from Mercedes.

Wasn't McLaren and Honda super tight a few years ago too?

If there is one thing that I have learned by watching all of these old videos is that there is NO SUCH THING as "Permanent Partnerships" in Formula 1.

I think that it will take more than a single season for Merc to leave McLaren in the bin and look for another chassis to power, but I would not expect it to be McLaren Mercedes on the 2025 grid....