What Happens If The McLaren-Honda Partnership Doesn’t Work Out?

After yet another disappointing race, McLaren-Honda have to keep dusting themselves off as they hope to put together a competitive package sometime in the future. But when?

People have recently started to question what’s going to happen to a Fernando Alonso or a Jenson Button if the car doesn’t improve soon enough. Is Alonso just going to waste what’s left of his career on a helpless team? Is Button going to retire with McLaren out of loyalty?

Perhaps the most pressing issue is considering what McLaren would do if their Honda partnership doesn’t work out as they have initially hoped that it would. There have indeed been rumors about McLaren being dissatisfied with how Honda does things internally.

Specifically, according to a source inside the McLaren garage, Honda is a slow learner and they tend to test out their theories until they have a definitive result – despite the fact that McLaren has more experience and can actually tell them what will work and what would be a waste of time.

Speaking of time, this is exactly what Alonso doesn’t have. So why would we assume McLaren will waste theirs on an unsuccessful partnership?

Also, just because Eric Boullier said that things couldn’t be better in terms of team culture and philosophy, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true for all aspects of the partnership, does it?

Bottom line, if they don’t end up with a good result in Monaco, it’s hard to imagine them doing any better anywhere else this year. And if that’s the case (and it probably is), we can safely say that they have to start focusing on next season, which will definitely be crucial for the future of both McLaren as well as Honda’s Formula 1 ambitions.