Honda has once again let McLaren down this season, but it isn’t the first time the British team has suffered because of their engine partner.

The decision to rekindle the relationship with Honda three years ago was based on common sense, the notion that you ‘can’t win with a customer engine’. What wasn’t known at the time though was if Honda were able to build a better engine than Mercedes or Ferrari, and that evidently hasn’t happened.

For context, cast your mind back to the early 90’s and the years after the first Honda era at McLaren. With the team finishing second behind the all-conquering Williams in 1992, Honda pulled out of the sport at the end of that season – leaving McLaren with a customer Ford engine in 1993.

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Not just a customer of Ford, they were actually behind in specification compared to Benetton, the leading Ford customer at the time, as they already had a pre-signed contract for the 1993 season. It was still significantly behind the leading Renault V10 at the time and led to them to sign with Peugeot in 1994.

In what was effectively a works contract, Peugeot’s effort was lacklustre with an engine renowned for being underpowered and unreliable, often failing in both testing and race weekends.  The regular failures led to the team to lose faith in the Peugeot project by the middle of the season, highlighted by the famous failure at the British Grand Prix when Martin Brundle’s engine spectacularly failed on the grid.

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The marriage with Peugeot didn’t last long though, with the team signing a long-term deal with Mercedes – a deal which ended up lasting nearly 20 years and brought them back to winning ways.

So, even back in an era where McLaren was still competing at the front they still had their woes, heading in the wrong direction not once, but twice in their efforts to get back on the front of the grid again.

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It was once again forced by Honda, after a period of domination and then a downturn in 1992, McLaren ending up with a second rate Ford seeking to find a better option for 1994. Honda has effectively caused problems then for them in the past by withdrawing their engine, leaving them in the lurch for an alternative.

It raises the question of the alternatives now. Unlike in the 90s, there are fewer manufacturers than before. Previously you had Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes, Ford, Yamaha, Peugeot and even the privateer Hart engine.  McLaren would have effectively a choice of three now Ferrari, Mercedes or Renault. Mercedes is the obvious choice given their most recent working relationship, and they have a gap in their offering following the demise of Manor over the winter.

There is more to it than just an engine though. McLaren rely heavily on the financial backing Honda brings to the team, and with no title sponsor to fall back on it would leave the team with money to find to finance a customer package. Even with partnership guru Zac Brown onboard the McLaren project, finding a title sponsor in the current market is difficult – evident by a lack of sponsorship on a number of teams including Sauber and formally Manor.

This is 1994 all over again, just played out over a longer period of time But they don’t have an obvious ‘get out’ this time around which might just cause them more pain yet.