McLaren still wants to switch to Mercedes in 2021
While the technical regulations have been postponed to 2022, McLaren does not intend to delay its engine supplier change.
Last September, McLaren announced its intention to leave Renault at the end of the 2020 season in order to switch to Mercedes. The timing was ideal as it was set to coincide with the major technical revolution, thus avoiding significant adaptation work.
However, this strategy has been compromised by the coronavirus crisis, which is significantly disrupting the start of the season. In this context, all the teams have agreed to postpone the new technical regulations to 2022. One could therefore wonder if McLaren would also contact the two engine manufacturers to delay the deadline. This is not the case as the team reaffirmed in a statement: We will use the Mercedes engine in 2021 as planned and adapt our current chassis.
On the other hand, this will have a significant impact on the Woking team as they will necessarily have to change their chassis to adapt it to the Mercedes power unit, with specifications that are inevitably different from those of Renault, while actively preparing for the transition to the 2022 regulations. If the current season finally gets underway, technical developments could be quite limited in order not to overly compromise the next two seasons.
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
