Despite the troubled times currently endured by McLaren-Honda, the Japanese manufacturer has reiterated its commitment to its partner.
Disappointing pre-season testing in Barcelona underlined the massive lack of performance and reliability of Honda's all-new V6 turbo hybrid power unit.
Beyond the practical matter which deprived McLaren of crucial mileage and disrupted its development programs, the Woking-based has been forced to weigh its options for the future, including parting ways with Honda despite a ten-year contract binding both parties.
While McLaren is rumored to have informally contacted Mercedes to inquire about a potential engine supply, Honda says that it has no intention to reconsider its agreement with its partner.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa confirmed Honda's clear stance on the matter of its relationship with McLaren.
"Of course the situation we find ourselves in is not what we hoped for when we returned to Formula 1, but we are still 100 percent committed to our future in the sport and our relationship with McLaren.
"We believe in this partnership, as does McLaren, and in order to move forward it is important for us to work as one team and overcome the situation together.
"The priority is to maintain honest and open communication, and to continue strengthening all relationships between Honda and McLaren despite the difficulties we are facing.
"This is not a short-term project for us."
Honda has apparently been hard at work in the last week, resolving its engine's reliability and performance issues in time for next week's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
"We were not dealing with lots of different problems, despite how it looked from the outside," Hasegawa explained.
"Already while in Barcelona we were able to introduce some countermeasures and we proved the effectiveness of these during test two.
"In terms of performance, there is room for improvement with mapping before Melbourne in order to have better driveability.
"And at the same time we will continue to work on our development to generate more power from the PU."
Regardless of Honda's efforts, if reliability and performance remain dismal in the openings races of the season, the McLaren-Honda relationship will likely reach a point of no return, and collapse.
At this stage, McLaren is probably hoping for the best , but expecting the worst!
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