Ross Brawn says McLaren had to ditch Honda to move forwards
F1 News
Ross Brawn says that McLaren made the right call to stop using Honda engines and switch to Renault. The squad suffered three tough years with Honda from 2015 to 2017, but made great steps in 2019 in their second year with Renault power.
Brawn believes that McLaren used Honda's underpowered engine as an excuse for other issues with the car and by switching to Renault they could see that there were bigger issues with the car.
This is why the former Ferrari and Mercedes boss thinks they made the right call, despite Honda's improvements over the last two years, with Red Bull showing it can be competitive as Max Verstappen took three victories in 2019.
Brawn told La Gazzetto dello Sport: "People are now saying that they have made a big mistake by stopping their cooperation with Honda, but I think strangely enough that they needed this to see that they had to make some changes to the team.
"They constantly blamed Honda and I think they now see that this was not right. By getting rid of Honda and getting a reference point (with the Renault engine), they could see that they also had to improve something within the team. I would not know how they came to that conclusion other than by placing an engine in the back of the car that another team is doing well with."