Worse I reckon, 09 only lasted about half a season, this could chuck them to midpack with Lowe and Mercedes engines gone for good amount of years. Ferrari won't give them engines and RBR would love nothing more than to see McLaren suffer for screwing them out of Mercedes engines in 2009 by a nice veto back in their direction. It's Cosworth or their own engines. I expect 2013 to be McLarens last chance to get the WDC/WCC, after that year they will be quiet for a amount of years ahead.
Unless Honda have been keeping it secret, there have no time to build and develop an engine for 2014 and as its so critical to the car design, McLaren must know which engine they are using in 2014. I imagine they will stick with Mercedes for at least another year, possibly whilst they develop their own in-house.. Their other options are extremely limited.
Don't see what Honda gain from it to be honest, Honda pulled out F1 entirely because they believed chucking money at a sporting event is not as important as keeping the Japanese people employed which I respect. Maybe they'll come back in 4-5 years time when the world economy is more stable, but at the moment Japan is starting to get hit pretty hard with the changes of other countries like America and Britian who are trying to save their own backsides in the worldwide trade of things. Or so the BBC made me believe a few weeks ago... I'm more inclined to believe the Cosworth stories of them buying it and building it up again. It would fit into Lewis' agenda that he needed to jump ship and then maybe think of coming back a few years down the line. Seems Jenson signed on the dotted line pretty snappy and is going long term with McLaren, Lewis I believe didn't want to waste those years just fighting for podiums and wanted to be competitive every season against Seb and Alonso.
Honda's previous successes came as a supplier only. It's only when they went alone that they ballsed it up. As a supplier, they can take massive credit for success, but hide behind the team for failure. win win from a marketing point of view and a lot cheaper. All the manufacturers screw it up when they tried to go it alone, look at Mercedes, Toyota, BMW, Honda etc. The Cosworth option is an interesting one, but if Cossie have already designed an engine, the basis paramaters of it will be frozen so there may not be a huge amount Mclaren can do to it. If they design their own, they can race it when its ready.
Paddy Lowe is a huge loss to McLaren. Imagine Red Bull without Newey, and you can see the effects if Byrne not being at Ferrari. Paddy isn't in the league of Newey or Byrne but he's McLaren's top dog and him leaving will hurt them a lot for 2014. They need a brilliant replacement to work for them immediately otherwise they'll be off the pace in 2014 - problem is great guys like Allison and Key would have to go on gardening leave, and while I rate Goss, I don't think he can put up a credible fight against Newey or Byrne. Goss can save them from 2009 humiliation though.
I don't know about Lowe not being in the same league as Byrne and Newey. You only have to look at the controlling nature of Ron on Newey to see how negative of an effect it had on his role when he was there. The day Lowe took over Newey's roll, McLaren actually improved as a team over the years rather than get worse and worse under Newey. So we should find out how good Lowe really is now when he has more freedom to explore, if anything he should perform just as well as Newey at RBR, maybe even better it.
That's a good point, but until he can achieve the success that Byrne or Newey has, I can't consider him to be in their league.
McLaren didn't die when Newey left them, Lowe was just one man in a big machine. A setback rather than the death knell.
I love being a Mercedes fan, now I know how city fans felt when the billions came their way First Lauda then Lewis, now Lowe, next dream selection would be Seb or Alonso in the other car with some of their close personnel.
Would be interesting to see if Mclaren go for Allison. We could see a backroom staff merry-go-round come end of 2013. 2014 could be a massive year for them because if they have a dog of a car then I can't see how they could recover.
Lets just hope McLarens car strength comes from a depth of excellence throughout the design team as a whole rather than 1 singular great designer.
What does anyone know about the calibre of Tim Goss? Also How much was Lowe involved in the 2013 car?
