Why don't McLaren make their own F1 engine?

[entropy]

bakerstreet said:

Didn't Mclaren own a share in Ilmore, which essentially became Mercedes F1 engines?

No, it was Roger Penske who had a stake with Ilmor going back to when it built Chevy Indycar engines and then Merc brought Chevy's stake.

Edit - Ilmor is still going. Mario Illien is help out Renault's F1 engines.

[ralphrj]

slipstream 1985 said:

ralphrj said:

RichB said:

I don't know much about the McLaren road cars so are these engines built exclusively for McLaren to a McLaren design? Or is it a tuned BMW or something like the Pagani uses an AMG?

They are built exclusively for McLaren and are badged McLaren. I imagine that McLaren own the design of the engine but I couldn't tell you if anyone from McLaren actually had a hand in designing it.

I can recall a journalist raising the prospect of McLaren buying the BMW F1 engine when BMW announced that they were pulling out of F1 (McLaren effectively being on notice from Mercedes at the time). Martin Whitmarsh agreed that the idea made a lot of sense but wasn't going to happen. Reading between the lines, McLaren don't have enough money to fund the investment required.

iirc that bmw engine was pretty good was it not?

From memory I think it was pretty good. The final season (2009) was a bit rubbish but I think that was down to issues with the chassis, KERS and lack of development following BMW's decision to pull out.