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BMW have made it clear that they will not be returning to the F1 grid in the near future. The German company made a deal to work with McLaren on their road cars which sparked rumours of a future F1 project.
McLaren have already committed themselves to Honda who re-started their supply of power units to the Woking based team in 2015. Although the history of McLaren-Honda is rich and successful, they haven't impressed over the last two seasons.
"McLaren's long and close partnership with Honda in Formula One is not affected in the slightest by the fact that another consortium enters into a partnership with our road car industry, which is there to develop new engines," said a representative of the team .
"Honda and McLaren have a common goal to again become competitive in F1 and that remains our primary focus. For many it is the difference between our Formula 1 team and the road car division is not always clear."
The last time BMW was in F1 was from 2006-2009 when they bought Sauber which formed BMW Sauber Formula One team and in addition BMW provided the team with engines for the next four seasons.
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G. Zhou
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Replies (5)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Yeah McLaren are too committed to Honda.. Maybe elsewhere in the future
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Figured as much. By the logic of some people, McLaren should've switched to using Nissan as engine supplier long ago, since the combustion engine in their current cars are of Nissan origin, heavily modified or not. Its not exactly odd that McLaren partner up with BMW on their road cars, but it is a bit of a downer for Honda that they didnt choose them instead.
RS200
Posts: 26
The McLaren F1 road car was initially planned to have a 500hp Honda engine. The legacy of the McLaren F1 road car would be slightly diluted if BMW didn't step in with that amazing engine. I beleive BMW once again will be the better choice for a road car project if it's a super car they are planning.
Vet5
Posts: 225
I think we will see alot of interest over the year from manufacturers (Hopefully) seeing a mercedes have just become no.1 manufacturer for selling road cars and putting BMW 2nd and VW 3rd.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I hope so, would be nice with more manufacturers.