McLaren waits for Audi and suggests Porsche will join Red Bull

January 19, 2022

The British team has been linked with Audi if the Volkswagen Group -owned company decides to be in Formula 1 when new power unit rules due in 2026 come into force.

The team has held talks with the German manufacturer, but it seems that the ball is now in Volkswagen’s court, which has to decide what the next step is to take.

Volkswagen is understood to be studying two options for a move to F1: an Audi alliance with McLaren or using Porsche with Red Bull.

At a media event at the McLaren factory in Woking, Zak Brown cheekily suggested that the Red Bull option seemed to be moving forward, while the Audi situation remained unclear.

“I’ve heard they’re going to do something with Red Bull from the Porsche side,” Brown said. “I think they’ve talked to a lot of people on the grid and as you can imagine we have conversations.”

“But in the short and medium term, we are very happy with our current partner (Mercedes). So we are going to wait and see what happens. Are they going to go into Formula 1? Because I think that has not been fully decided.

“If they do, we have a contract during this time (the current engine regulations until the end of 2025). And obviously then we’re going to assess where we are and who’s going to be on the grid, and then we’ll make a decision on what we’re going to do. do in 2026, but in due time”.

McLaren switched to Mercedes engines last season as part of a long-term deal, and will remain with the German manufacturer until the end of the current regulatory cycle.

Although it has long been questioned whether a client team can win a world championship, Brown is convinced of its chances.

“I think we can win with a Mercedes engine,” he said. “I know that for a long time there has been an opinion that you can’t win with a customer engine. I think you can and we are very confident that our Mercedes power unit is identical to yours. We haven’t seen anything that says otherwise”.

“You’re at a bit of a disadvantage from an overall design standpoint, because it’s understandable that they have a bigger view of what the architecture is like. So there’s a drawback to being a client team, but that has nothing to do with the unit of power itself, but in the knowledge you get from having what might be called a first look (of the engine design).”

In photos, the McLaren-Mercedes of Formula 1

1995: McLaren-Mercedes MP4/10

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The pilot

Mika Häkkinen, Mark Blundell

Photo by: LAT Images

1995: McLaren-Mercedes MP4/10B

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Pilotos

Mika Häkkinen, Mark Blundell, Nigel Mansell, Jan Magnussen

Photo by: LAT Images

1995: McLaren-Mercedes MP4/10C

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The pilot

Mika Häkkinen, Mark Blundell

Photo by: LAT Images

1996: McLaren-Mercedes MP4/11