The McLaren vs Honda situation has literally played out like a soap opera. However, Eric Boullier admitted that the British marquee still hoped that a solution could be found. He said “At the first tests of 2017 we realised serious problems were waiting for us. We began to get nervous and started looking for solutions that could improve the situation. As a last resort, we were ready to offer that Honda skips the season while it improves and McLaren would use some other engines for that period.”

However, Honda rejected the proposal and McLaren had to look for other ideas. Other ideas included a technical cooperation between Honda and Mercedes. He also suggested forming their own group of specialists in the engine area made up of different companies to help Honda find more efficient solutions more quickly.

The Frenchman said “Unfortunately, none of the proposals were properly explored and as a result we ran out of arguments. We had to come to the conclusion that there was no other way out except for the termination of the cooperation,”

Conclusion

Though it was a messy divorce, McLaren were still willing to trust Honda to the point of offering them to take a sabbatical. In the meantime, they would temporarily race with another manufacturer’s engine until Honda figured out a permanent solution. Sadly, Honda were too stubborn and finally both parties decided to go their separate ways. Honda will now join forces with Toro Rosso while McLaren forms an alliance with Renault.