Are McLaren planning to use Honda engines for F1 in 2014?

It’s being reported that Honda are heading back to F1 supplying McLaren with engines from 2014, recreating a successful partnership from the 1980s.

There is no real love lost between McLaren and Mercedes. Respect, certainly, but McLaren has done all it can to extricate itself from business dealings with the Germans, and the final step may be a partnership with Honda to supply new engines for the McLaren F1 team.

Auto Motor and Sport are reporting that McLaren and Honda are in talks for Honda to supply new engines to McLaren when the engine regulations change in F1 in 2014.

Honda-engined McLarens enjoyed huge success in the late 1980s, both with a turbo engine and a naturally aspirated one, when Prost and Senna dominated F1 for McLaren.

The engine deal with Honda came to an end in 1992, after which McLaren flirted with other engine suppliers – including Lamborghini – and competed with engines from Ford and Peugeot before teaming up with Mercedes in 1995. And that’s how it’s stayed for the last 16 years.

But with McLaren extracting itself from Mercedes’ clutches after the production of the McLaren SLR ended – by buying back Mercedes shareholding in McLaren – it has returned to making its own road cars and engines for the McLaren MP4-12C.

And with Mercedes buying up Brawn Racing in 2009 for the 2010 F1 season, the writing was always on the wall for Mercedes engines in McLaren F1 cars.

The current deal with Mercedes for free engines runs out in 2012, but McLaren do have a deal in place to take Mercedes engines at the going customer rate (about £7 million) until 2015.

Auto Motor report a Honda source in Suzuka saying Honda are technically ready to re-enter F1 as an engine supplier, but no deal has yet been done.

If that is true, then McLaren would be a perfect fit. Red Bull are unlikely to undo their relationship with Renault, Ferrari build their own engines and Mercedes too. So if Honda want back in to F1 at the top end, then McLaren are the obvious route. And Jenson Button’s huge popularity in Japan – thanks to his relationship with Jessica Michibata – could well play a part in Honda’s choice of partner.

Back to the glory days of a McLaren Honda partnership, with Button and Hamilton instead of Prost and Senna, is an appealing prospect for F1 fans.