If we remember, McLaren made the decision of leaving Renault engines and instead, Mercedes will be their new supplier. This decision was very impressive (in a good way) for a lot of people because the alliance between these two brands will happen again since a few seasons ago, but the decision turned out as a very compromising plan, because McLaren decided to change of engine in 2021 due to the new regulations, but, as this change of era was postponed until 2022 thanks to the Chinese virus called coronavirus and all the crisis it comes with, the British team will have to use the Mercedes engine without the new regulations for one season. Is it going to be a good decision?

Maybe McLaren would had asked if they can extend their contract with Renault for more season, so the plan of having a Mercedes engine when the new regulations take place keeps going, but they didn’t and they have announced that their plan with Mercedes will keep going in the next year, even without the new regulations. Toro Rosso (now Alpha Tauri) left Renault in 2016, Red Bull left it in 2017 and now, McLaren is leaving the French manufacturer this year. This is a huge amount of money that Renault has lost to develop their car and engine. To explain this, Marc Priestley, who is a former mechanic of McLaren, sustains the theory that the British team decided to take different ways from Renault because the French manufacturer might leave Formula 1 at the end of this year. The interview was reported by “Marca.com”

“I was surprised that McLaren decided to go ahead with the move to Mercedes in 2021, even tough the rules won’t change next year. It would have been a weird conversation to ask Renault to be with them for another season.” Marc commented.

The former mechanic made a very interesting comparison between the conversation McLaren and Renault would have had and a teenage break up. “It is like telling your boyfriend or girlfriend of the last years that you want to break up and a couple of days later you tell them that the person you’ve met is not ready to move and you ask her/him if you can continue with that person a little more.”

“Even so, something that should not be ignored is that perhaps Renault plans to leave Formula 1 by the end of 2020, and McLaren may already have known that and, therefore, there will be no Renault engine for next year; who knows.” Said Marc Priestley.

It worth say that this is only a rumour. There is nothing official (yet) and these are all speculations. But, if it turns out into a true matter, this would mean that there will be one less engine supplier and, therefore, Honda, Mercedes and Ferrari will have to expand their business and supply engines to more teams.