The year 2024 has inarguably delivered one of the most enthralling Formula 1 seasons of the hybrid era. The high-flying Red Bull outfit is starting to lose its performance advantage over McLaren and others, upping the chances of witnessing a nail-biting championship rivalry on the track. However, interestingly enough, this year has also chipped in quite a few interesting off-track dramas as well – From Lewis Hamilton’s shocking Ferrari jump to the looming Adrian Newey mystery, the list goes on.
And to the long never-ending list of dramatic stories joins McLaren. According to reports, the Woking-based outfit has been in talks with its rivals, Red Bull Racing, and could well strike a groundbreaking deal in the coming months. Indeed, one might be wondering what this is all about. Well, here’s how it started!
With “exploratory discussions” having been held with Alpine, Toto Wolff says Mercedes are “open-minded” on a potential power unit supply deal.#TotoWolff #Mercedes #Alpine #Formula1 #F1 pic.twitter.com/nXtA3Fqmqg
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 10, 2024
Alpine has been inflicting quite a lot of drama into the motorsport community lately. While it started with the unexpected interest in Carlos Sainz, which hampered Audi and Williams’ chances of scoring the Spaniard, Alpine has now somehow kindled a disagreement between Mercedes, McLaren, and Williams.
Barely a month ago, rumors suggested Alpine had opted to break its engine partnership with Renault and desired Mercedes AMG’s power unit instead. Of course, it sounded like a viable option for the French outfit considering Aston Martin would be moving away from Mercedes for Honda in 2026. However, McLaren isn’t too keen on sharing its power unit with Alpine.
McLaren boss Zak Brown unhappy with Mercedes’ latest interest
After a bitter few years with Honda and Renault, McLaren turned to Mercedes’ power unit in 2021 and since then, the duo has been working together. Furthermore, the well-known ‘McLaren Mercedes’ is also showing signs of reinstating its dominance in Formula after over a decade. Amidst such a positive turnaround, Mercedes’ untimely interest in Alpine could spoil the party for McLaren.
🚨 | Zak Brown has been in regular contact with Red Bull recently about a possible engine partnership.
McLaren and Williams fear that Mercedes could have problems with reliability if they additionally supply engines for Alpine.
Red Bull was surprised about the timing of the… pic.twitter.com/WaDxTil3Cy
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) July 10, 2024
According to Auto Motor und Sport, Zak Brown isn’t a fan of the potential Mercedes-Alpine union solely because of the reliability issues that come with it. Therefore, McLaren has its eyes set on Red Bull Powertrain. But, here’s an interesting twist – despite McLaren’s interest, Red Bull is nothing but baffled by the “timing” of the request, considering the new regulations are barely a year away from coming into effect.
Hence, the big question is whether Mercedes is willing to break its positive relationship with McLaren for a new entrant in Alpine.
Sara Chavan