McLaren told to ‘grow up’ and build its own F1 engine after Mercedes complaints
Lando Norris jumps from his McLaren following a stoppage on track during FP2 in Monaco.
Guenther Steiner has told McLaren that it is time to be a “grown-up” and build its own Formula 1 engine, rather than point a finger at its engine supplier when things don’t go to plan.
Reigning world champion McLaren has been outclassed by the Mercedes F1 team at the start of the new regulations and trails the Brackley squad by 179 points to 333.
Former Haas boss says McLaren should stop blaming customer power units
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Both the McLaren and Mercedes receive their power units from Mercedes High-Performance Powertrains [HPP].
But while Mercedes has won seven of nine Grands Prix to lead both championships, with a 1-2 in the drivers’ standings, McLaren has yet to secure a single Grand Prix victory.
While some of the deficit is down to the MCL40 chassis, the power unit has also played a role.
“Power unit exploitation and power unit performance are particularly important, and I have to say, and I’ve said that other times, that we still seem to have a little bit of a deficit in extracting the most from the HPP power unit,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Silverstone.
“If you look at the GPS overlays, it becomes apparent that somehow we need to keep our conversation open with HPP, because there’s some performance we seem to be leaving behind.”
It’s not the first time Stella has highlighted the difference between McLaren’s and Mercedes’ understanding of the new power unit.
“We have work to do to exploit the potential of the power unit, which, once I see the potential that HPP is extracting, looks like there’s more that is available,” he said at the season’s opening round in Australia
“Now, it’s not obvious how you do that – for us, we are in a journey of knowledge, but certainly a journey that is at an earlier stage than the works team.”
He added: “What they are doing shows they understand a lot more, and maybe the flow of information hasn’t been as anticipated.”
However, former F1 team principal Steiner reckons complaining about the power unit is a go-to excuse for McLaren.
The Woking team ended its partnership with Mercedes ahead of the 2015 season after former team boss Ron Dennis declared customer teams would never win a championship and instead went with Honda.
But after three years with Honda and that infamous “GP2 engine” cry from Fernando Alonso, McLaren moved to Renault power before rejoining Mercedes’ customer pool in 2021.
Steiner says it’s time for McLaren to stop complaining and instead build its own Formula 1 power unit.
“Absolutely,” he told The Red Flags podcast. “They are a car manufacturer; they should make their own engine.
“That would take away, because they always when something goes wrong, ‘Oh, the engine, now we don’t get the same engine as Mercedes’.
“They had issues with Renault at the time. They had issues with Honda. It’s always something.
“At some stage, you need to be a grown-up, and they’ve got enough money.
“Zak is pretty good at selling that team, sponsorship. Get the money, instead of putting it in the bank, make your own engine.
“I mean, that would send a message.
“Also, I think, commercially for their old cars, would be a good thing. That’s my opinion about it, they should go for it. Red Bull went for it, and they are doing pretty good.
“Audi went for it. They are a car manufacturer, they don’t want to buy a Ferrari engine. They want to stand on their own two feet, they want to be taken seriously.”
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Asked why he thinks McLaren has not gone down that route, Steiner replied: “Expensive. And difficult.
“It isn’t easy to make an engine, but I think the first hurdle is the money and then the people – like all the time when you do something, when you do a business.
“But at some stage if you are not happy with what you’ve gone, and they are not, what you need to do – you need to do it yourself.”
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