It’s safe to say McLaren & Honda’s 2017 campaign hasn’t got off to the ideal start.
An apparently flawed design for the oil tank and other mechanical niggles have seen the new MCL32 stranded in the garage more often than not during the opening Formula 1 test.
Despite a trouble-free third day on Wednesday, it still didn’t do much to re-fill the lost hope and expectation that this year will be the big revival.
The problems they have had this week, however, are not too surprising. Honda has once again introduced wide-ranging changes to their engine design as it tries to make up for the year or more of development it has to make up to their rivals.
But even then there’s an issue, engine boss Yusuke Hasegawa said in the days building up to the Barcelona test that these changes are only targeting the performance figures of last year’s Mercedes. So, in reality, they are not really making any ground into that time gap at all.
The whole reason for the rebirth of the once iconic McLaren-Honda partnership was the notion that, as a customer team of Mercedes, they were never going to have all the tools to fight the works outfit.
That line probably holds a lot of truth, after all the three teams we see leading the way all have one major difference, the name of the unit that sits under the engine cover.
But after two seasons of mostly disappointment are McLaren any better than they would be if they did have a Silver Arrow in the back?
Clearly, the answer to that is no and the prospects of that changing already appear pretty dull.
Now it seems the scale of the task that the British team and Honda set out to achieve is simply too great.
The technology of the current hybrid power units is so new and has so much scope for development that while Honda may make bigger gains, the goalposts they are aiming for just get shifted further away.
That is why McLaren’s aim to make the top three into a top four with Honda is currently unattainable.
Let’s not forget too, this year a certain double world champion called Fernando Alonso has to decide whether he wants to remain onboard or not.
On current observations, he’d probably jump ship sooner rather than later if he could.
Here’s the thing, however, if McLaren really is in it with Honda for the long haul, which they seem keen to emphasise they are, then they must start considering 2020.
Yes, McLaren fans that’s a long away, but with negotiations on potential changes to the power unit set to start with F1’s new owners for that year, the team and Honda would be wise to try and get a jump start.
They need to try and do what Mercedes did when they rejoined as a works team, focus on a long-term goal even if it results in short-term pain.
While it may cost them Fernando and maybe even Stoffel Vandoorne too, that, at this moment, seems the only way McLaren and Honda’s marriage won’t end in an angry divorce.
