Horner Believes Renault Cannot Supply McLaren

All through the 2017 season, the curious case of McLaren has been the talk of the town. With the Woking team unhappy with Honda, a messy divorce may be imminent, but who will be the new bride-to-be? McLaren’s options are very limited as Mercedes have ruled out chances of them supplying engines. Ferrari have also slammed that door shut, besides McLaren-Ferrari does not quite have a good ring to it. The only other alternative option is Renault.

However, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has admitted that an English-French union could be very unlikely. The French engine supplier are already partnered with Red Bull and her sister team Toro Rosso and they also have a works team.

“I don’t think Renault could supply a fourth team,” Horner told Sky Sports F1. “I don’t think they have the capacity to do that and they would also need FIA approval to do that which I which I can’t see happening. It is an FIA issue if Renault are to supply more than three teams, but I can’t imagine a situation where they would agree something which would be effectively be putting Honda out of Formula 1.”

In short, it means that McLaren will have to weather the storm together with the Japanese giants.

“Within the contract there’s certain provisions,” he said. “We learnt the lesson a couple of years ago with Ron Dennis [ex-McLaren chief] and some of the clauses he puts into his contracts. Any supply that Renault choose to make is ultimately down to them but I think three is their capacity at this point in time.”

Writer’s Opinion: With Red Bull already having numerous reliability issues and Renault working around the clock to find solutions, a 4th customer team would only cause more headaches for the French manufacturer. McLaren and Honda will have to work together if they wish to return to the sharp end of the grid.