Verstappen title reward for belief in F1 engine programme

Honda returned to the sport in 2015 as an engine manufacturer with McLaren but suffered a disastrous start with underperforming and unreliable engines, which had to be designed to fit McLaren tight packaging.

The partnership proved to be a major embarrassment for the proud Japanese company, with soundbites such as Fernando Alonso’s “GP2 engine” comment doing little to improve relations.

A lack of results across three fruitless years led to McLaren and Honda ultimately…