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Struggling McLaren-Honda F1 partners near 'fork in the road'

WOKING, England - McLaren's partnership with Honda has not worked so far, and the team is now approaching a "fork in the road," executive director Zak Brown said on Wednesday. Speaking to Reuters in his office at the Formula One team's headquarters, Brown (pictured above) indicated clearly that a parting of the ways was a real option under consideration by management. The American said engine upgrades promised for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix were not ready, and the Japanese manufacturer could not say when they might be. And while McLaren still wanted to win championships with Honda, there were serious concerns as to whether that was achievable. "Honda's working very hard, but they seem a bit lost," said Brown, who replaced Ron Dennis at the helm late last year. "We were only told recently that we wouldn't have the upgrade coming (for Montreal) ... and we don't have a definitive timeline, which is concerning because the pain is great and we can't sit around forever. "We were eagerly awaiting this upgrade as were our drivers, and it's a big disappointment that it's not coming. It's not lack of effort, but they are struggling to get it to come together."FAILURE AND EMBARRASSMENT McLaren, the second oldest and most successful team in Formula One after Ferrari in terms of race wins, are the only ones yet to score a point this season. They have not won a race since 2012. The renewed partnership with Honda in 2015 was billed as a return to the glory days, when French great Alain Prost and the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna dominated the late 1980s and early 1990s. Instead it has brought failure and embarrassment to the former world champions, whose cars have failed to finish races -- and sometimes even start them -- due to engine failures. Spanish driver Fernando Alonso, a double world champion whose future is uncertain, said in March that "we have only one problem, and that is the power unit. There is no reliability and there is no power." Honda's engine troubles even plagued Alonso at the Indy 500, where a failure took him out of the race. McLaren were ninth in 2015, sixth last year and this season could become their worst ever. MARCHING ORDERS "The executive committee have now given us our marching orders," said Brown, who is also chairman of the fast-growing Motorsport Network media group. "We're not going to go into another year like this, in hope." "I don't want to get into what our options are.

Fernando Alonso drives Senna's McLaren in latest promo clip

McLaren has put a lot of great drivers in the cockpit over the years. Several multiple World Champions in fact, from Ayrton Senna to Fernando Alonso. It may seem only fitting then that the latter should get a chance to sample the former's ride, and that's just what the team has done for this latest promo video. It's actually the trailer for a new clip called Don't Crack Under Pressure, celebrating 30 years of partnership between McLaren and TAG Heuer, filmed at Catalunya (Spain). Which is all well and fine, but the point is: Alonso, in Senna's car, the MP4/4 in which Senna won his first World Championship in 1988. And he's playing cat and mouse, no less, with Jenson Button in the new MP4-30, which is powered once again by Honda. Just like in the Senna days.

McLaren MCL33 F1 challenger debuts in Papaya Spark

New Zealander Bruce McLaren founded his eponymous race team in 1963, entered the Formula 1 World Championship in 1966, but fielded his first "McLaren orange" car in the 1967 Can-Am Championship. The following year, Bruce's F1 cars got the orange juice and birthed a mythology. McLaren F1 returns to those 50-year-old roots this year with its MCL33, painted Papaya Spark with contrasting Burton Blue and Cerulean Blue. The team hopes you won't be able to miss the #14 and #2 cars emerging from the weeds they've been lost in for three years while under Honda power. With little change in the regulations beyond the advent of the halo, the MCL33 evolves last year's MCL32. Other than the halo, the big work involved reworking the engine compartment for the Renault power unit — the first time in McLaren's 52 years in F1 that the team has used a Renault engine. There are two engine architecture philosophies in the sport now, one used by Mercedes-Benz and Honda, the other by Renault and Ferrari. Accommodating the new partner meant redesigning the back of the car, including the cooling layout, gearbox bell-house area, and rear suspension. Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne continue their tenures with the Woking, England, team. Playing it cautious after three years of disappointments, Alonso said, "I feel incredibly excited — but also apprehensive. I know just how important this car is to the team, and I just hope that it delivers in the way we all want it to." Executive Director Zak Brown will hope so, too, so he can please the same fans who petitioned for that classic papaya livery, and so he can hide more of that paint under sponsor logos. A curious note on that Petrobras sponsorship — McLaren will actually be using fuel and lubrication products from the sponsor it signed last year, BP Castrol, while Petrobras spends this year developing fuel and lubricants for the team. The MCL33 hits the track today for a film session, then begins eight days of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next Monday. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.