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McLaren managing director, Jonathan Neale says that Mercedes and McLaren will continue to work strong despite the Honda deal kicking in for the British team from 2015 onward.
With the Japanese manufacturer coming back to the sport, the McLaren-Mercedes partnership will end after a 20-year long stint. In the 80′s, Honda and McLaren reached incredible heights with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Earlier this week, McLaren and Honda confirmed that they’d get back into partnership in 2015 with the new 1.6 litre turbo-charged engines. However, Neale maintains that Mercedes will continue to work together closely and help in the title challenge next season.
“Mercedes will give us the information we need,” Neale said.
“Mercedes engineers and ourselves have been working very closely together.“
“We need each other to be successful. We are great partners and have won many races together, we recognise our inter-dependence and while we’re hugely competitive on the circuit, there is a hugely high regard behind the scenes between the two organisations.“
“I have to stress here, our relationship with Mercedes-Benz is very good and spans two decades,” he said. “We are very careful about protecting our partners’ interests and property.
“We have given undertakings to Mercedes and they are being respectful about giving us all the information we need but not giving us more information than we need to get the job done and that’s understandable. There will be no poaching or dismantling of parts.“
As of now, McLaren have no contracted driver for the 2015 season, but Neale says that if Button wishes, he could stay on at the newly-titled McLaren-Honda team.
“Jenson will drive here as long as he wants to drive here,” Neale said. “He is a great guy and he’s doing a really good job in some difficult times for us at the moment.
“He fits our value and our culture here really well. His comment to the workforce this morning was more a question of hoping he is still here in 2015. He’s excited by the prospects as well.“
