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Be cool if McLaren bcame a completely independent team. Excellent
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 
i don't really care what happens with McLaren but I'd love to see a full Mercedes works team.
The hottest rumour at the Suzuka circuit on Saturday is that McLaren is contemplating splitting completely with Mercedes at the end of the season.
Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reports that the Woking-based team's plan, masterminded by chairman and former team boss Ron Dennis, is to buy BMW's Formula One engine division from the withdrawing German carmaker in order to go it alone as an independent chassis and engine constructor.
The move would clear the path for Mercedes to completely concentrate on its intensifying partnership with Brawn.
McLaren has an engine supply contract with equity partner Mercedes for two more seasons, but Dennis is believed to be confident that - as with his new MP4-12C road car project - the outfit can manage without the Stuttgart based manufacturer.
Auto Motor und Sport said BMW would be interested in selling its F1 engine programme for the right price, and that Dennis may already have made enquiries with the marque's Munich headquarters.
It is also rumoured that McLaren's existing Bahraini investors might bolster their involvement in order to support the new independent engine programme.
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh has however denied the rumours. "We have no plans to buy BMW's engines,” he said.
Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International
McLaren’s partnership with engine-supplier Mercedes-Benz – believed to have been on rocky ground for some time – could culminate in divorce as soon as the end of the 2009 F1 World Championship campaign, it has been rumoured, with reports that BMW is set to fill the breach.
A number of factors are understood to have led to the apparent deterioration of the McLaren-Mercedes relationship, which since its foundation back in 1995 has yielded no fewer than four world championships (three drivers’ crowns and one constructors’ trophy) and 60 grand prix victories. Of late, however, the strength of the ultra-successful partnership has been assaulted by a number of scandals – from the 2007 ‘Spygate’ row to reigning F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton controversially being caught lying to race stewards following the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne this year.
That is believed to have left a bad taste in the mouth at Mercedes, and allied to the poor early-season performance of the aerodynamically ill-born MP4-24 – despite the Stuttgart manufacturer’s engine widely-acknowledged to be the best on the starting grid – and contrastingly excellent form of Brawn GP, which the three-pointed star helped to save from extinction last winter, there has been increasing speculation in recent months that Mercedes is looking to switch its allegiance and acquire a shareholding in the ex-Honda F1 outfit instead.
To that end, whilst initially pushing for McLaren to snap up highly-rated Williams star Nico Rosberg for next year, it is now understood that the young German is more likely to end up at Brawn as team-mate to world champion-elect Jenson Button – another indication that Mercedes’ priorities may be shifting.
Should a split indeed occur, it has been reported by German magazine Auto Motor und Sport that McLaren is in discussions with BMW about purchasing the Bavarian marque’s engine division – not part of the Qadbak Sauber deal – once the company officially withdraws from top flight competition at season’s end.
The move would transform the Woking-based concern back into an independent operation once more in the truest sense of the word – charged with building both its own chassis and engine, one step further towards its purported goal of becoming a ‘British Ferrari’ – and according to the report, it is former team principal and McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis who is behind the plan.
BMW is said to be willing to sell – at the right price – and McLaren is believed to have been promised backing for the initiative by way of increased input from its Bahraini investors. The only sticking point is the two years remaining on the current Mercedes contract – but team principal Martin Whitmarsh has dismissed the stories.
“We have no plans to buy BMW’s engines,” the Englishman asserted, as a McLaren spokesman described the rumours as ‘complete nonsense’.
Aside from the cooling in relations in terms of the F1 project, Mercedes elected to design its SLR replacement the SLS AMG Gullwing in-house, whilst McLaren are similarly going it alone in the conception of the new MP4-12C road-going supercar.
i love the slant they put on it that McLaren are the bad guys
i love the slant they put on it that McLaren are the bad guys
Cause they mentioned the scandals?
i love the slant they put on it that McLaren are the bad guys
Cause they mentioned the scandals?
yeah ultimately i think it came down to power and Mercedes wanted more, they werent happy when Ron sold 30% off to the Bahrainis instead of offering them more shares, secondly McLaren had plans for their own road cars to follow the F1 but Mercedes said no to 3 or 4 concept supercars. Now with the MP4-12 that is pushing them even further apart.
Ultimately i want McLaren to buy the BMW engine plant, it is their next step. with their road cars taking off in 2 years they will have the same structure as Ferrari in having extra cash coming in from the road car sales.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. i love the slant they put on it that McLaren are the bad guys
Cause they mentioned the scandals?
yeah ultimately i think it came down to power and Mercedes wanted more, they werent happy when Ron sold 30% off to the Bahrainis instead of offering them more shares, secondly McLaren had plans for their own road cars to follow the F1 but Mercedes said no to 3 or 4 concept supercars. Now with the MP4-12 that is pushing them even further apart.
Ultimately i want McLaren to buy the BMW engine plant, it is their next step. with their road cars taking off in 2 years they will have the same structure as Ferrari in having extra cash coming in from the road car sales.
i love the slant they put on it that McLaren are the bad guys
Cause they mentioned the scandals?
yeah ultimately i think it came down to power and Mercedes wanted more, they werent happy when Ron sold 30% off to the Bahrainis instead of offering them more shares, secondly McLaren had plans for their own road cars to follow the F1 but Mercedes said no to 3 or 4 concept supercars. Now with the MP4-12 that is pushing them even further apart.
Ultimately i want McLaren to buy the BMW engine plant, it is their next step. with their road cars taking off in 2 years they will have the same structure as Ferrari in having extra cash coming in from the road car sales.
Also the engine for the new McLaren road car is McLaren which i think is actually quite significant!
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