Why McLaren getting rid of Honda as power unit supplier was shocking decision

F1 pundit Peter Windsor has said that McLaren's decision to cut ties with Honda was a shock. That's because the former world champions were not paying any money to the Japanese manufacturers for their power units.

In 2015, McLaren announced that they would use Honda power units to return to their glory days in the 80s when they dominated the sport. However, both parties were unable to replicate the success. Zak Brown, who took over the team in 2018, decided to drop Honda as a power unit supplier in favour of Renault and later Mercedes.

During his live stream on his YouTube channel, Windsor said:

"When Zak took over, he got rid of the Honda engines pretty quickly which were free to McLaren, and replace them with Mercedes, which he had to buy, and I think the number is 23 million. I think to go from not paying anything to what they suddenly had to pay as a Mercedes customer team."

He continued:

"I said it several times at the time, I'm shocked that he had done that because there is nothing wrong with the Honda engine and Honda programme that really good management of the Honda programme couldn't put right. Absolutely for sure, Red Bull would know how to do that with some very intelligent people. I'm shocked that Zak didn't think that he could do that."

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"We thought that the regulations were quite restrictive"- McLaren team boss

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that ahead of the 2022 regulation change, he was apprehensive that the new regulations would be restrictive in terms of development.

He told Motorsport.com:

"I have to admit, and I think most teams should admit the same, that before the new generation of cars touched the ground, we thought that the regulations were quite restrictive. But interestingly, as soon as you start the journey, you realise there's a lot of performance, especially on the floor. This ground effect can be exploited from a technical point of view beyond what I think anybody in Formula 1 would have anticipated."

He continued:

"If you see the level of sophistication of the geometries, you may see on some cars, especially possibly in the parts facing the ground, so not necessarily very visible, and the complexity of the flow field, and the vertical structures that you want to generate under the car, then these went beyond what the regulations would have expected."

McLaren will look to make some gains in the new era soon and become competitive again.