The Sauber team has signed a long-term Formula 1 engine supply deal with Honda, which will provide the Swiss operation with the potential to be more competitive in the longer term, and with a better financial package than it has had with Ferrari customer engines in recent years. The deal is probably for three years, to get the team to the end of the current commercial agreements in 2020. It is difficult to imagine it being longer than that, as decisions about continued partnership are dependent on the rules and regulations - and the commercial agreements - in 2021, which have yet to be decided upon.
As part of the deal, Sauber will buy McLaren-designed and developed transmission systems. Honda has been keen to secure a second F1 team in order to speed up the development process and wanted also to protect itself against any team claiming engines because of new regulations that oblige the engine manufacturers to supply teams that need engines - without having the right to choose their partners.
By securing a deal with Sauber, Honda will now have two teams in 2018, the same as Ferrari, while Renault and Mercedes will have three apiece.
There has been much recent speculation - most recently from TV pundit Eddie Jordan - that McLaren might switch to Mercedes engines at the end of the season, but this does not seem to be the likely outcome. Mercedes has provided four teams in the past, but the Stuttgart firm does not want to be seen to be pushing Honda out of the sport. While the deal with Sauber could provide a way for McLaren and Honda to part company at the end of the year, the finance that is coming from Honda to McLaren is considerable and this means that the partnership will continue.
There is opposition within Mercedes to McLaren being sold engines because there are fears that the Woking team might embarrass the factory team - as happened to McLaren in 2009 when it was the Mercedes works operation and agreed to allow the same engines to go to Brawn Grand Prix, which had been the Honda factory team. Brawn won the World Championship, which led to Mercedes buying Brawn and terminating its long-term arrangements with McLaren, forcing the team to look elsewhere and to conclude a deal with Honda for 2015.
However, in order to agree to continue the partnership, Honda is likely to have committed to get better engine technology to ensure that McLaren will be more competitive in the future. There have been rumours that the Japanese company may have agreed to purchase engine technology from Mercedes, although such an arrangement would never be made public, although the sale of technology between rival automobile firms is fairly normal within the industry. It is possible that Honda might have avoided that by doing deals with other suppliers, such as Mahle, the German automotive supplier that developed the turbulent jet ignition systems that are believed to be used in the Mercedes F1 power unit. This system was originally developed by an Australian engineer called William Attard, although he left Mahle in 2014 and now works for the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles's advanced engine and transmission controls division. In 2015 Ferrari acquired the Mahle technology for its F1 programmes and the Maranello team may be using Attard (or at least his ideas) as FCA and Ferrari are, in effect, sister companies.
Honda hopes to have a competitive F1 engine by the end of the current season after two and a half seasons of struggling to find the power and reliability to compete head-to-head with Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault. It is unlikely that any technology deal will be announced publicly because admitting such an arrangement would, in effect, be admitting that Honda engineers have been able to solve the problems, but to the world at large none of this would really matter.
Source: JSNL
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