Mclaren poised to switch engine suppliers from Honda to Renault
Mclaren are poised this week to end their bedevilled relationship with Honda by agreeing a deal for Renault to supply their engines from next season.
After another gut-wrenching race for the team, with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne both receiving grid penalties but failing to reach the chequered flag, the bonds with Honda are now ruptured beyond repair.
Mashashi Yamamato, Honda’s head of motorsport, flew in from Japan this weekend for crisis talks, but Mclaren’s dialogue with Renault is already well advanced. Should an agreement be finalised this week, Alonso would, according to Mclaren executive director Zak Brown, be “very likely” to stay on.
It will be hugely expensive for Mclaren to break ties with Honda that were supposed to last 10 years, but the situation is now untenable.
Vandoorne was penalised just prior to the race when he was fitted with a brand-new engine and still suffered a power failure.
Eric Boullier, the team’s racing director, made no attempt to tone down his displeasure. “The talent of our drivers shone, and we held on to the hope that we would be able to achieve a positive result against the odds, but once again we were left dejected and dissatisfied. For the whole team, it’s utterly frustrating.” Alonso has committed to clarifying his future this month, although he sounded during the grand prix like a man at the end of his tether. There was palpable rage in his radio communications at the idea that he, as a double world champion, should be fighting for track position with Jolyon Palmer, a driver without a single point this season.
Alonso explained: “I had problems with up-shifting from the very early stages – at some points it was costing me almost a second a lap. We tried to fix the issue by changing the settings, but it never worked and it hampered my race.”
Brown cautioned that there was still diplomatic progress to be made with Renault before the Honda marriage could end. One potential sticking point would be whether Toro Rosso continued to use Renault engines in 2018. As Alain Prost, who brings all his experience in winning four world titles to his role as a senior Renault adviser, put it: “To supply four teams is almost impossible. If they can come up with a solution where we only supply three, we would be happy to look at it.
“I have to put emotion aside – Mclaren was a big part of my life. We have been approached, and they want to have a different situation. We listen, but they have to make a decision first. It’s important we don’t compromise our work.”
On a galling day, Alonso did derive some grim satisfaction, at least, from winning one small battle. “What happened to Palmer?” he asked his garage, after the Briton passed him by cutting a chicane. “He had to retire,” he was told. “Karma,” came the reply.