Force India opposed to Mercedes-Honda collaboration

Force India has expressed its opposition to any eventual plan of cooperation between Mercedes and Honda, with the aim of helping the Japanese manufacturer overcome the dismal reliability issues of its power unit.

Asked this afternoon in Barcelona if Mercedes was indeed willing to work with Honda, team boss Toto Wolff was mum on the subject, refusing to offer any specifics on the potential relationship.

"We are not doing anything for Honda, that is the current status quo," Wolff said.

"So unless that situation changes, I don't want to contribute to rumours out there that are false and I think are damaging for Honda, and create hard standpoints from teams or other stakeholders.

"We will see what happens."

But Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley is clearly opposed to the outfit's engine supplier helping a rival manufacturer, offering a sound reason behind his resistance.

"As a team obviously that has not only paid for its engines, but contributed to the development of them, I would certainly be very negative with sharing that technology with another team that is a competitor," said Fernley.

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