10 years of Honda. You do wonder if anything will be left of McLaren by the time they're finally free.
Perhaps Pirelli need to offer softer tyres soon... This is for Hungary please log in to view this image
McLaren have the talent and the know-how to build their own engines. I just don't think they have the money to do it anymore with sponsors jumping ship and their prize money dwindling. If Honda want out, why not just hand the engines to McLaren to develop and see what they can do with them?
Hope you all enjoyed this short spell of the cars not looking stupid. Halo to be introduced in 2018. They held a vote in which 9/10 teams said no and the FIA introduce it anyway... https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/strategy-group-halo-shield-decision-932802/
A bit of a shame Vettel became dizzy without even completing a proper lap. I blame whatever he consumed just before going out for the test…
I think finances are definitely the issue. As a company they only made a few million in profit last year, so they don't have the funds to develop a costly engine that has little relevance to the road cars (which all have V8's). They do have wealthy backers, but they'd really need them to sink serious money in to engine research, which will probably all be redundant in 2021 anyway. If the 2021 engine formula is "cheap", I can see them considering it, and trying to sign Sauber and a new Chinese team as customers, but I don't think they have a chance of doing it under these rules.
Actually, Cosworth have just announced they are working towards a 2021 F1 return. Zak Brown is on their board...
I really don't get this halo design. It could potentially direct debris in to the cockpit depending on the type of impact. I don't like it one bit.
Whilst 2+2 doesn't always equal 4, especially in F1, surely a tie up is inevitable with that scenario?
Seeing as Ferrari and Mercedes seem to have entirely ruled out supplying them at any point, that limits them to Cosworth, Honda or Renault as options through to probably 2026? They've surely got to give the Cosworth option serious thought.
It makes sense to both companies. If they can get someone like Sauber to take customer engines as well, they'll get some money back and additional development. The Honda concept is so flawed, I don't think a second team will make a difference at all. They'll just break more units.
Maybe part of Honda's exit agreement could be to hand over to McLaren what they have done. Maybe British engineers can do something with it to make it work if they are given free reign?
Never thought of that , also as I suppose ( as you mentioned ) Renault could be an option . Maybe Renault would give them better treatment than they give Red Bull , given the kicking Red Bull gave them very publically .
IIRC they already designed an engine for these regs back in 2010 for VW. I'd like to see ford back in F1.