Sauber cancel Honda deal
Sauber have cancelled their planned partnership with Honda for the 2018 Formula 1 season for “strategic reasons”.
The Swiss outfit, currently powered by a year-old supply of Ferrari engines, announced as recently as April they would join forces with Honda next year.
But speculation the proposed tie-up was in danger first surfaced when Monisha Kaltenborn, the Sauber team principal when the original deal was signed, was replaced in June by Fred Vasseur.
According to Honda, who have endured a torrid return to F1 since reuniting with McLaren in 2015 and whose engines are considered to be the least reliable and powerful on the grid, the termination of the planned partnership is as a result of ‘differences in the future direction between Honda and Sauber’.
“During discussions after management changes at the team, we reached a mutual agreement to call-off the project due to differences in the future directions of both parties,” said Honda chief Masashi Yamamoto.
An announcement on Sauber’s new engine suppliers for 2018 will be made ‘shortly’.
The termination raises the stakes in McLaren’s own deliberations over whether to stick with Honda in 2018. Were the fallen superpowers, the only team currently below Sauber in the Constructors’ Championship, to divorce Honda at the end of the year then it would almost certainly result in Honda leaving F1 and the sport starting 2018 with just three engine manufacturers on board.
However, Yamamoto has said that “Honda’s passion for motorsports and strong commitment to Formula One remains unchanged.”‘
As for Sauber, one possibility is that they will seek a deal with Mercedes, whose engines are recognised to be the class of the field. But that in turn could have serve repercussions for McLaren and potentially block any hopes they have of reforging the partnership with Mercedes they had before returning to Honda power three years ago.
Alternatively, Sauber could strengthen their existing relationship with Ferrari, with speculation already rife they could hire one of the Scuderia’s reserve drivers, Antonio Giovinazzi or Charles Leclerc, for 2018 as part of any new deal.