During a press conference last Friday at the Red Bull Ring, I asked Honda engine boss Yusuke Hasegawa if the recent departure of Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn would be a stumbling block in the newly signed engine supply agreement with the Swiss team…
Instead of explaining how things were going, Hasegawa-san was very short and non committal in his answer to me saying that: “This is Sauber and Honda’s collaboration.” He went on to say that while he “appreciated” Kaltenborn’s “start in the collaboration,” he could not comment any further about the “inside of the Sauber organisation.”
Interesting words coming out of the Japanese engine boss when it should have well been within his remit of knowledge that Sauber were close to announcing Fred Vasseur as the team’s new CEO and team principal this morning. No words of support for Sauber during a difficult time, no outright comment that Monisha’s departure would have no effect on the relationship; no, just a short and non committal answer that clarified nothing at all!
Listening to paddock scuttlebutt over the rest of the weekend (usually reliable for a general tone rather than specific facts), it was clear that all was not well between Honda and yet another F1 team, this time Sauber! If the second hand stories I picked up on were reliable, it turned out that Hasagawa-san only (officially) learned of Kaltenborn’s departure like the rest of the paddock via a jumbled series of midnight media releases.
Surely, you keep your ace card (Honda) fully updated with progress and any major internal developments before they become public knowledge? Clearly the Swiss team’s new owners either didn’t consider the departure of their key conduit between the two companies would have an effect on the future relationship, or they didn’t care…
So it was with interest that I read overnight that the German tabloid Auto Bild Motorsport was reporting that the arrangement to supply Honda engines to the Hinwil based team next year was dead. The reason apparently given by the Japanese automotive giant was that Kaltenborn was no longer in place and that they had not been advance warning of her departure.
If this is the case, and I may add that no one that I have tried to reach this morning was prepared to make any comments on record and deny this situation, it now means that incoming team principal Fred Vasseur also has to secure an engine supplier for next year.
The easiest route would be to shore up the existing relationship with Maranello or he could even perhaps go knocking on his previous employer’s door, Renault, and see if they are prepared to supply the team. Only time will tell which route he will explore.
And given the precarious relationship between Honda and McLaren, could Honda again be departing F1 at the end of this year; something that they have done on a number of occasions before? Surely Liberty Media will be doing everything within their power to keep Honda involved next year?
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