Big Blow For McLaren As Fuel Supplier And Sponsor Petrobras Leaves

One can say, McLaren have begun the 2019 season quite decently. With the services of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris, two young and talented drivers on the grid, McLaren’s season has shown a fine improvement in the five races held so far.

There are, interestingly, two views of seeing how the Zak Brown-unit has performed thus far.

On the one hand, one can say the current season has been one marked with slow improvements since all that the team has managed are 22 points, not even close to Red Bull’s 87.

But despite Horner’s outfit being with a lead of 65 points, McLaren are the best in the midfield, with the likes of Renault, Alfa Romeo, Toro Rosso trailing them.

One wonders though if this visible improvement, one minus a certain Fernando Alonso can help McLaren deal with a blow that’s come to strike them as the 2019 season is only beginning to blossom?

Wondering how?

Well, McLaren have lost their main sponsors, as also their fuel suppliers in the form of Petrobras. And guess what? This stunning revelation comes in at a time where the ten teams on the grid are only beginning to settle down for round six of the 2019 Formula 1 season, to be held at Monaco shortly.

So one wonders, what next now?

While what’s going to happen in the course of the imminent future is still unknown, what’s known is that Brazilian President Bolsonaro has announced that his government is attempting to find a way out of the current crisis.

But apart from the team’s grid performance and recovery from, what’s certain is that Zak Brown’s outfit would be grieving since starting 2018, Petrobras had signed a deal with one of F1’s legendary racing outfits worth £ 150 million for a period of five years.

All that said, here’s the tipping point of the team. While one’s only approaching the mid-season break, McLaren are here moving about minus their main sponsor. While that should sufficiently explain the team’s troubles, what certainly isn’t is the fact that it is the government that runs a controlling stake in the state-owned oil giant.

And while much of the Formula 1 season is yet to unfold itself, it doesn’t help the team one bit that it finds itself in a state of chaos.