McLaren to end engine partnership with Honda and switch to Renault next season

McLaren have put an end to their Honda nightmare after formally confirming they are severing ties with the beleaguered Japanese manufacturer.

The British team, a winner of 20 world championships, will switch to Renault power next season in a desperate bid to propel them up the Formula One grid.

Honda returned to the sport to team up with McLaren in 2015, but the relationship has turned increasingly sour following another year in which they have been plagued with both a slow and unreliable engine.

McLaren's move to Renault, the third best of four engines currently in the sport, is also likely to be enough to seal Fernando Alonso's short-term future with the team.

Alonso, 36, is out of contract with McLaren at the end of the season, but is set to put pen-to-paper on a one-year extension.

Honda are set to remain on the grid next season and will partner Red Bull's sister team Toro Rosso.

"There has never been any doubt over Honda's commitment and energy to the mission of success in Formula One," McLaren's executive director Zak Brown said.

"They are proven winners and innovators. For a combination of reasons our partnership has not flourished as any of us would have wished.

"It is certainly not for the want of effort on the part of either Honda or McLaren, but the time has come to move ahead in different directions.

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"As fellow racers, we hope to see the great name of Honda get back to the top - our sport is better for their involvement. I know this view is shared by everyone in the sport."

McLaren enjoyed a remarkable run of success with Honda during the glory years of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna nearly three decades ago.

But Honda's return to the grid with McLaren has been nothing short of a disaster. Indeed Britain's most successful Formula One team head into this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix last but one in the constructors' standings.

While Honda showed signs of improvement in 2016 after a troubled opening year, they have been desperately short on both reliability and power this term with Alonso among their biggest critics.

McLaren believe they have the machinery to challenge at the sharp end of the grid, and hope their move to Renault - in a three-year deal which runs until 2021 - will provide them with the muscle to take the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari next year. Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen.

"Today's announcement gives us the stability we need to move ahead with our chassis and technical programme for 2018 without any further hesitation," American Brown added.

"As an organisation, McLaren has always worked extremely hard to form lasting partnerships with its technical suppliers. We're convinced that we can bring real value to Renault Sport Racing as we work alongside it to develop this current power unit into a regular race winner."

In a series of anticipated developments here in Singapore on Friday, Renault have also confirmed that Carlos Sainz, 23, will leave Toro Rosso to join them next year in place of Englishman Jolyon Palmer.

The move to appoint Sainz casts doubt over Palmer's future in the sport with only a limited number of seats yet to be finalised for 2018.

PA