Everyone within Formula One knew that a break up was on the cards for McLaren and Honda.
The partnership was suppose to bring a return to the golden times of McLaren Honda in the 1980’s.
McLaren wanted a manufacturer partnership to battle Mercedes for regular race wins and championships. They felt they couldn’t do this with a customer engine and so ditched Mercedes for Honda.
That decision saw McLaren tumbled down the standings within Formula One.
They no longer compete with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull and instead now compete (and regularly lose) to Haas and Sauber.
The partnership had to end for McLaren’s sake and thus they have ended their deal with Honda and have turned to French manufacturer Renault.
A deal to keep Honda in the sport has been achieved however and they will power Red Bull Racing’s sister team Toro Rosso from 2018.
Part of that deal has seen driver Carlos Sainz join Renault on a football style loan deal from Red Bull Racing.
‘For a combination of reasons our partnership has not flourished as any of us would have wished,’ McLaren boss Zak Brown told Sky Sports.
‘It is certainly not for the want of effort on the part of either Honda or McLaren, but the time has come to move ahead in different directions.’
McLaren have agreed a three-year-deal with Renault and the pair said in a joint statement: ‘McLaren-Renault is a partnership that will challenge for victory,’
The whole situation no doubt will have proved very embarrassing for the Japanese manufacturer.
They returned to the sport seeking success and have thus far been somewhat of a laughing stock within Formula One.
Honda however have not taken this opportunity to once again walk away from the sport, they have instead gone with the move to Toro Rosso and potentially Red Bull Racing in the future.
That shows the fight within Honda is still burning, hence their attempt to pass the buck for the breakdown with McLaren.
?Working with McLaren, I?ve realized that they are a very big company which is very systematic,? Honda?s motorsport head Masashi Yamamoto told reuters.
?It?s obviously very strong because of that but at the same time they can find it hard to adapt to change.?
A messy McLaren Honda divorce
