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McLaren F1 team sets deadline for engine decision amid Renault speculation

BUDAPEST - McLaren says the next five weeks will be the key to deciding which engine it will use next season, with speculation mounting that the former world champions could ditch Honda and switch to Renault. Chief operating officer Jonathan Neale told Reuters at the Hungarian Grand Prix that "everybody is talking to everybody," but time was running out. "We've got to land those decisions in the next four or five weeks," he said, speaking from a design perspective and because drivers like McLaren's Fernando Alonso were waiting to see what engines teams had before committing to new deals. "I think there is a solution out there for everybody and I hope it's one that will be able to retain Fernando in this team." McLaren scored their first double-points finish of the season in Budapest on Sunday with double world champion Alonso finishing sixth, a day after his 36th birthday, and Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne 10th. The nine points lifted McLaren off the bottom of the standings just before the August break and factory shutdown, a result that Neale compared to scoring a goal before halftime. Alonso's future is a key concern, with the Spaniard out of contract and saying McLaren needs to provide a competitive car to keep him. Honda's power unit has been beset with problems since the partnership started in 2015, the engine neither reliable nor competitive. Hungary, the slowest permanent circuit on the calendar, reduced those shortcomings, but the next two races in Belgium and Italy are two of the fastest, where engine horsepower is of critical importance. McLaren is Honda's sole team in Formula One. A proposed partnership with Sauber terminated last week with the Swiss team choosing to stay with Ferrari. A split from McLaren could force the Japanese manufacturer out of the sport, but Neale hinted at an alternative. "You'll have seen the media speculation that there's discussions with Toro Rosso," he said. Toro Rosso use Renault engines, but a switch to Honda — which could bring welcome funding to a team whose Red Bull parent has considered a sale in the past — would free the French units for McLaren. The Renault engine has won a race this season with Red Bull and could satisfy Alonso, who won both his titles with the French manufacturer. The other alternatives to Honda are Mercedes and Ferrari, but Neale recognized that putting a Ferrari engine in a McLaren, the Italian team's historic arch-rivals, was highly unlikely.

Touring the Boulevard at the McLaren Technology Centre

Ask anyone where the supercar capital of the world is and they'll likely point you towards Italy. But that's not the only place where supercars are born. Nor is it – despite the best efforts of Ferrari – home to the bulk of grand prix victories and world championships. Those bragging rights belong to a section of England we call Carbon Fiber Valley. It's where you'll find the majority of Formula One teams and suppliers, and at its heart lies the sleepy town of Woking. With a little over 60,000 inhabitants, Woking wouldn't register on most radars. But it blips big on ours thanks to the McLaren Technology Centre, home to one of the most successful teams in F1 history and a supercar manufacturer to rival Italy's best. It's one of the great gearhead meccas of the world. So on our last visit to the UK we took a stroll along the boulevard of McLaren history. Hidden on more than a hundred green acres at the outskirts of Woking lies a space-age complex designed by Norman Foster, one of Britain's preeminent architects. Both inside and out, it could double as a super-villain's lair in most any fantastical action movie. The McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) opened in 2003. The campus grew with the addition of the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in 2011, and other facilities that are in the works. MTC hugs one of four artificial lakes that help cool the building and the adjoining wind tunnel. The entire building is pristine, everything above ground in glass and metal, everything below well-lit and lined with white panels. It's an embodiment of the McLaren ethos and the manifestation of chairman Ron Dennis' notorious obsession with detail. The cafeteria, for example, has lower air pressure than the rest of the building, so that smells don't escape into the hallway. Walking around, you get the feeling the entire structure could at any moment rise from the ground and rocket off into space. The story is just as impressive at the adjacent MPC where technicians assemble the 650S, P1, and the forthcoming Sports Series. If things were any cleaner, less cluttered, or more spotlessly sterile, you'd think you were in an operating room. Unfortunately, photography of the assembly facility is prohibited, but that's just as well, because what we really came to see was the Boulevard. While most F1 teams sell or scrap their used cars, McLaren keeps the vast majority of its own.

Alonso wants an NSX, but did Honda block him from Le Mans?

One of the biggest changes in store for the 2015 Formula One World Championship will see Fernando Alonso moving back to McLaren. That means he'll be driving under Honda power for the first time, after spending the bulk of his career driving for Renault and Ferrari. And being Honda's new poster child, as the two-time World Champion is fast discovering, has its advantages and its drawbacks. According to the latest reports, Alonso had been negotiating a clause in his contract with McLaren that could have seen him driving a Porsche 919 Hybrid at Le Mans this year, but Honda reportedly stepped in at the last minute and scuttled the plan. The drive would have been Alonso's first in the famous 24-hour race, after having had the honor of waving the flag at La Sarthe last summer. In one of the wilder rumors that emerged during the prolonged silence over his move for this season, the Spaniard was also linked to a potential return for Ferrari to Le Mans. That prospect came to naught, and now the Porsche deal has been wheeled into the garage, as well. The upcoming F1 season is expected to be one of transition, adjustment and development for McLaren and Honda, but the Japanese automaker's involvement in his hiring may not be all bad news for Alonso. Following the reveal of the new Acura NSX, Alonso tweeted "You still don't know, but one day we will be together..." followed by a series of heart-eyed smiley-face emoticons and accompanies by images of Honda's new supercar. The implication is that the two-time World Champion is expecting to get his talented hands on an NSX of his own, and we can certainly see how Honda would appreciate the imagery of Fernando driving around in its flagship. Even if it doesn't, though, we're sure McLaren would be glad to hook him up with a company car of its own – though Lewis Hamilton encountered some trouble securing (a very specific) one for himself. Even discounting the front-running F1 machinery he's been tasked with piloting on track to an impressive 32 career wins, Alonso has had some lustworthy company cars at his disposal over the years. At Renault, he had a Megane RS to drive, and during his last stint at McLaren, he had an SLR 722. But since signing with Ferrari, he's been given the keys to FCA models as varied as a Ferrari FF, a special 599 GTO, a Maserati GranCabrio, a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT and an Abarth 695... and those are just the ones we know about.