McLaren has always collaborated with engine manufacturers for the supply of their F1 power units. From Ford in the 70s to Honda in the late 80s, the Woking-based team has seen great success with this arrangement. Their historical 20-year association with Mercedes from 1995 to 2014 yielded them a lot of success with championships and race wins. So, despite being an automobile manufacturer, why doesn’t McLaren make their own F1 engines? – The answer is pretty business-centric as explained by Zak Brown in 2019.
He explained to Motorsport.com that the British car brand doesn’t get into manufacturing its indigenous F1 power units due to cost-related reasons. As quoted by GP Blog, Brown said, “You need to be a significantly bigger OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] that can warrant the spend to justify the exposure it creates for a greater number of car sales.”
Brown added that because the volume of their car sales is lower than what Mercedes, Renault, or Honda do, they cannot afford the costs of an F1 engine program. Even former McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl has justified the challenges the Woking-based outfit may face if they started their F1 power unit program.
Seidl stated, “You need a lot of running budget each year, and you would need a long time to catch up with what the others have put in place.” Besides this, Seidl also backed Brown’s point of how a team needs to invest a lot for an engine.
Currently, McLaren has a good flow of investment as they already were struggling to upgrade their infrastructure, including an in-house wind tunnel. So, McLaren knows that they can only fix what they can control, in their case enhancing their aerodynamics. Meanwhile, outsourcing the engines from Mercedes makes sense from both the sporting and financial standpoint.
McLaren is not letting go of Mercedes this time around
There were rumors of McLaren looking to switch engine partners again for the 2026 regulations. However, they shut down any reports of them switching to Red Bull RBPT or anyone else, by extending their deal with Mercedes till 2030.
The Woking team was one of the first customer teams of the Silver Arrows to extend their engine deal for such a long term. After all their troubles with Honda and Renault in the 2010s, McLaren understands that Mercedes is the best power unit that suits their car. Even Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged the strategic importance of this deal.
He stated, “It has been a cornerstone of our motorsport strategy to work with strong customer teams. This has many advantages: it gives a clear competitive benchmark, accelerates our technical learning, and strengthens the overall F1 business case for Mercedes-Benz.”
Similarly, even Williams have extended their collaboration with the German manufacturer till 2030. While Williams are not as strong as they used to be, in terms of engine partners and other allowed parts, they have a clear preference for Mercedes. Among the current Mercedes customer teams, only Aston Martin have switched partners for the 2026 regulations.
The Silverstone-based team has struck a deal with Honda, which currently supplies engines to Red Bull. Aston Martin feels it would be ideal to collaborate with Honda as they have the strongest power unit and a good understanding now to develop for the 2026 regulations.
