For 15 years, McLaren was the F1 team of choice for Mercedes-Benz, enjoying a near-works level of support and collaboration from the German automaker. But as you may recall, Daimler bought its own team three seasons ago: the outfit that started out as British American Racing, then became Honda before branching out as Brawn GP, was rebranded Mercedes GP under its latest management and now rechristened Mercedes AMG Petronas. And ever since, McLaren has had to deflect speculation that it was looking for a new engine supplier.
Back in November, those rumors, somewhat ironically, centered around Honda, the company that once owned the team now owned by Mercedes-Benz and which was once McLaren’s most victorious engine supplier. The Woking-based outfit scuttled those rumors at the time, and has now had to deny another set, this time involving PURE.
The new engine supplier established by former Jacques Villeneuve manager and BAR-Honda team principal Craig Pollock (with considerable technical know-how from former Peugeot, Renault and Ferrari engineers) is hard at work designing a new engine to be used from 2014 when the new turbocharged V6 engine regulations come into effect. There’s no telling which teams PURE will power at that point, but one thing McLaren is adamant about is that it won’t be theirs.
Instead, the brass at Woking is insistent that it is perfectly happy in its relationship with Mercedes-Benz, whose racing engine operations are linked to its eponymous racing team by little more than name and common ownership. McLaren, then, is expected to stick with Silver Star power at least through the end of 2015, if not longer.
autoblog
