28/12/2017
NEWS STORY
Having realised as early as the opening pre-season test that Honda had not made progress over the inter, but rather taken a couple of steps back, despite the claims in public that all was well McLaren began to put out feelers for a new engine supplier.
Calling on the successful relationship his team had built with Mercedes between 1995 and 2014, Mansour Ojjeh contacted Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche to ask if a customer deal might be possible for 2018.
While Toto Wolff was keen to resurrect the partnership, albeit with McLaren now a customer, the subsequent talks between the two parties went on for so long that it was no longer possible for the German manufacturer to put the necessary structure in place.
"We wanted to give McLaren an engine," he told ESPN, "the problem is that it dragged on for a long time and we just didn't have the structure in place and the capacity to supply them an engine for 2018. It was simply too late."
Asked if he would be willing to supply the Woking outfit in the future, the Austrian said: "You must never rule out supplying anybody in the future and this is why McLaren or anyone else in the future could be a partner."
While Fernando and Stoffel express delight at having ditched Honda for Renault, imagine the excitement if they were lining up on the Melbourne grid with a Mercedes power unit in the back of their MCL33s.