[Jody Barton]

What the title says really. Apparently they've spoken to both Renault and Honda. Seems a bit mental to me to be choosing to switch to either of those manufacturers when you have a Merc engine in the back of your car. Switching to Ferrari power I could understand, but why Honda / Renault? We know the Renault units cost more than Merc, God knows about Honda, but Merc also provide RP's gearboxes. I can't see it being performance related, or cost related really, so maybe souring relations between the two? Or are Mercedes looking at a making a new B-team and thus dropping RP from their program. Could just be window shopping from RP and nothing will come from it, but I thought I'd share it here and see what others think.

[NeilP]

What the title says really. Apparently they've spoken to both Renault and Honda. Seems a bit mental to me to be choosing to switch to either of those manufacturers when you have a Merc engine in the back of your car. Switching to Ferrari power I could understand, but why Honda / Renault? We know the Renault units cost more than Merc, God knows about Honda, but Merc also provide RP's gearboxes. I can't see it being performance related, or cost related really, so maybe souring relations between the two? Or are Mercedes looking at a making a new B-team and thus dropping RP from their program. Could just be window shopping from RP and nothing will come from it, but I thought I'd share it here and see what others think.

I just keep thinking Williams are ripe to become Mercedes junior team. Ferarri have one and half, Red Bull have one why should Mercedes not have one too.

Another thing to bear in mind with a budget limit coming on board is if you own more than one team you can spread yourself out a lot more and share data within the overall ownership and double your workload and stay within the rules. From that point of view alone Mercedes should get a junior team.

[Jody Barton]

Yeah NeilP I agree, I think this could be part of Mercedes looking into getting a B-team. Maybe RP are worried a new team might be entering the sport and their supply of Mercedes engines might be coming to an end, or maybe because of the budget cap they're looking for a better deal.

[Jody Barton]

Maybe after Perez's engine going bang we can see why RP are looking at alternatives!!! Joking, just joking. Hearing that Haas had to turn their new engines down as well. Are we seeing these units being pushed too hard at the pointy end of the grid, and with the lack of cooling / tech know how at the smaller teams them not being able to manage it?