German Car Zone

F1 : McLaren to snap up BMW's F1 engine division? - MCLAREN - F1-Live.com

I personally think there is a lot of credence in this story.

The main obstacle is, again, money. It would take tens, if not a hundred million dollars to buy the outfit and then there are the annual expense to keep the business running. Also, the Mercedes F1 engine is the best engine on the grid and McLaren would not want to lose it until they are sure they have a replacement that is up to the task.

To build a championship-winning F1 engine is no easy feat. Just look at Renault, Toyota, and BMW.

It took Mercedes Benz's high performance engine department many years and many hundreds of millions to build the bullet-proof championship-winning F1 engines we've seen in the last couple of seasons. It will be a very big risk for McLaren to take. But one which McLaren can pull off if they have the funding to do it.

I would very much welcome it, concerning the money maybe the arab fund will finance it, but first of all: Are the F1 engine installation in Munich independant from the rest of R&D facilities ?

I wonder how Mercedes feels about this. I mean, sure they have had their issues, but MB still own a stake in McLaren.

As long as the split is amicable, then it's okay. Mercedes is rumoured to be buying into the Brawn team with the objective of turning it into a modern Silver Arrows team in 2012 (when their contract with McLaren expires).

It's not just a contract. Don't they own almost half of McLaren?

I think it is 40%
They were trying to get part of Rons (30%) or his partners (30%) when the part was sold to who ever owns it now. I think the SLR had a lot to do with not selling to MB

Yes, Daimler (Mercedes Benz) owns 40% of the McLaren Group.

Mercedes Benz will have to either sell the shares back to Ron Dennis and Manjour Ojjeh or the Abu Dhabi fund that bought a 30% shareholding earlier. I'm sure they have first rights of refusal to Daimler's shares. If not, Daimler will have to sit on the shares or sell them to someone else.

40% is close enough to half. You get my point.

I'll be sad to see the two motoring giants part ways. There relationship has been mighty successful, a perfect partnership between two highly compatible brands. Dennis has some big ambitions for the Mclaren brand and given indications that Mercedes are in line to buy into Brawn, they will likely have to give up their Mclaren shares if they don't want to be faced with conflicting interests.

Owning two competing companies is begging for unnecessary drama, especially with F1 were there can only be 1 winner.