Button regrets Honda's early departure at McLaren

Legendary - there is no other word for it - the emotional outburst of former McLaren driver Fernando Alonso: 'GP2 engine, GP2 engine', the Spaniard shouted over the radio, after he had been overtaken once again. All the more remarkable is the enormous transformation Honda underwent in the following years.

What if?

Last season Honda won the world drivers' title with Red Bull, while McLaren has a customer engine from Mercedes. Indeed, a very strong power source. But before Honda, McLaren was a sort of factory team and an engine was produced especially for the McLaren cars.

What if? That's the question that has been hanging over the market anyway. What if McLaren hadn't pushed Honda aside so easily and there had been a further development of the engines together? Would McLaren have been fighting for the title and not Red Bull? According to Jenson Button, who raced for McLaren-Honda, it's a shame that the British team didn't continue working with the Japanese.

Difficult

From his own experience Button knows how difficult the beginning of the project was for Honda, he tells Autosport.com. Honda had a huge knowledge gap compared to the engine suppliers already present in Formula 1. The engine also had reliability issues in the first few years. Button thinks it's a shame that McLaren didn't give Honda a chance in spite of this. He also finds it very easy to blame the poor results at the time solely on Honda.

In Red Bull, Honda found a partner with whom it clicked. Moreover, the experience that the Austrian team had was of great value to Honda, with the title of Max Verstappen as a final result. Button says it is great that Honda won races again. At the same time, the former world champion regrets that the Japanese left Formula 1 already, but he understands from a cost point of view.