What on earth is going on with McLaren-Honda? The message from the engine supplier’s home grand prix at Suzuka was predominantly that neither of its two drivers appear to want to drive for the team next season.
– F1: Alonso’s future unclear after Japan outburst
– McLaren: Dennis adamant Button will stay on
– Japan: Lewis Hamilton powers to Suzuka glory
Jenson Button hinted he was ready to leave the sport prior to the race before performing a bit of a public U-turn. And to make matters worse for the team Fernando Alonso gave the impression of a rogue employee throughout the course of the weekend, finally spitting out his dummy on Sunday.
He begun it by saying the team were still effectively in winter testing so poor has been their in-season progress. Then in the race itself he was even more damning of his employers.
The Spaniard’s outburst over the race radio when passed by one of the Saubers and, when Toro Rosso’s teenager Max Verstappen, scythed past him were no slip of the tongue. He would have known the effect his words would have and that would have been his intention – basically, raise your game or lose me.
With the Honda president in presence at the race and in a country where pride is perhaps even more important than any other, his shaming words will have hit home. One pundit even made the suggestion that these were the words of a driver trying to get himself the sack. The whispers are that Alonso may jump before being pushed from his £25 million-a-year (Dh139m) deal and, with no other drive of note available, call time on his F1 career altogether, 10 years on from winning the second of his two world titles.
So it means that a team still in need of vast driver experience as it continues to claw back its place at the front of the grid are facing the prospect of losing both Alonso and Button and instead having the option of turning to a novice in Stoffel Vandoorne and Kevin Magnussen, who has just one season’s experience under his belt, for the 2016 season.
But the drivers are not the only ones disillusioned by the ongoings this season. One of their main sponsors, Johnnie Walker, are set to walk away at the end of their season and end their £15m-a-year (Dh84m) sponsorship of McLaren-Honda.
In addition, should Alonso opt to call time on his tenure in the sport – and the indications from his close confidante Flavio Briatore over the weekend are that he will – then another major backer, Santander, is likely to sever ties too.
A tough #JapaneseGP but we’ll keep pushing to improve. Thanks for your amazing support, guys. http://t.co/4HYcjMalxn pic.twitter.com/YrTDR4Web8
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) September 27, 2015
In recent years, Santander has gone where Alonso has been. Should he quit the sport, in all likelihood they would make the same decision.
At a time when much of this year’s in-season development will have been complete, plans for next year’s car will already be well under way. The fact that neither driver appears to want to stay put would suggest there are few signs of the Honda engine getting much more power and that McLaren’s aerodynamic package similarly is not producing the required results.
The team have remarkably presented a picture of unity and belief in their progress, despite this season’s problems. Alonso and Button were positive about the future in almost every interview, albeit probably because they are contractually obliged, and team boss Ron Dennis pushing out the theory of McLaren and Honda being born winners.
But now things have turned ugly for the team. It led former world champion Nigel Mansell to tweet during the race: “When you know a team and manufacturer are working flat out and it’s not working a dignified silence would be nice, give them more time.”
There are cracks wherever you look within the team. Take the case of Button during qualifying, the Briton bowing out before the end of Q1.
The reason for his faltering pace in qualifying was down to the fact an incorrect engine setting had been made on his car, the most elementary of mistakes by the team. The explanation afterwards was simply that they had forgotten to tell Button the right setting.
So what now for McLaren? Well, Dennis needs to go into overdrive to keep at least one of his star drivers (in truth he does not want the annual outlay of £37m (Dh206m) for keeping both) and also stop the flood of sponsors leaving the team.
And then there is the simple matter that the McLaren is not actually aerodynamically brilliant, a facet overshadowed by the fact that the Honda engine has such underperformance.
For Honda, the Japanese Grand Prix will have been particularly humiliating, with Alonso rubbing salt into an already open wound with the company still unable to get the turbo part of its engine to work as it would like.
Honda have walked away from F1 before on the eve of Button’s 2009 World Championship-winning year. Could it happen again? They insist they are in it for the long-term but clearly patience is running thin with all parties.
