Honda has only one year of exclusivity with McLaren F1
As Honda actively prepares its return to F1, the Japanese engine manufacturer wanted to make it known that it has only one year of exclusivity with McLaren and not two.
Last April, Yasuhisa Arai, its competition director, had stated to Sky Sport: “If teams want to use our engine or power unit, we can supply them after 2016 but, at the moment, there is no plan.”
However, in an interview with the F1 website, the same executive clarified that Honda was willing to supply its engine to another team as early as 2016: “In 2015, we have no plans to supply any teams other than McLaren. In 2016 or later, if other teams or partners wish for us to be their supplier, we will analyze the situation. But even in 2016, McLaren will be our main partner in F1.”
This decision is logical in the sense that the more customer teams the engine manufacturer has, the more data it is able to collect. Otherwise, Honda would be in a significantly inferior position compared to Mercedes, Renault, or Ferrari, all of which supply three teams. Thus, one might consider a team like Sahara Force India, with whom McLaren has a close technical collaboration, or Lotus, which would switch to Mercedes for only one season.
This is what Yasushisa Arai wanted to clarify. Thus, if he was open to other partnerships, it was not in a financial logic but rather to obtain more exploitable information: « Even if we supply other teams starting in 2016, our main objective will be to win by making the engine better through more data. Not necessarily to look at our return on investment. If we win, that will come automatically. »
Moreover, the Japanese leader acknowledged that McLaren will not be testing with its new engine during the end-of-season tests in Abu Dhabi. The new unit will only be tested during the winter tests in Jerez at the beginning of next year: « As of now, there are no plans to collect data for the remainder of 2014. Jerez will be our first. »
With the participation of www.Racingbusiness.fr
