There has been talk in recent days about the McLaren engine supply. My German colleagues are adamant that the relationship between McLaren and Mercedes is going to end in divorce as quickly as is “decently” possible as Mercedes has found exactly what it wants in buying into Brawn GP. Everyone is saying all the right things at the moment but beneath the surface of F1’s water the legs of the swans are busy, busy, busy.

The fact is that for some time it has been clear that the strategies of McLaren and Mercedes-Benz have been heading in different directions. Both want to build supercars, but they don’t appear to want to do it together, as they are both busy developing their brands and they need to be selfish. The launch of the new McLaren MP4-12C the other day (just before Mercedes pulled the covers off the SLS AMG at the Frankfurt Motor Show) was a sign of where things are going in the road car markets and that has to have an effect in F1. My theory on the subject was that as the McLaren road car now features a McLaren-badged engine the company’s future in F1 is not going to be with another manufacture. The engine may be built by sub-contractors but it is clear that McLaren’s ambition is to become Britain’s version of Ferrari and designing engines is part of that. The next step in the brand development of McLaren must be for the company to build McLaren F1 engines. In any case by going down the chosen path McLaren has narrowed the number of possible F1 engine partners dramatically as no-one will want an alliance if they are selling competing road cars. And McLaren is not going to gain much in image terms by going to mass market car brands when they are positioning their automotive brand in a much higher and exclusive niche.

Ironically, if McLaren does start making its own engines it more logical, rather than less, for its road car rivals to launch F1 programmes against them and Ferrari – because the likes of Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Porsche are facing stronger competition in the marketplace and so need to create compelling reasons why customers would buy their products, rather than those of their racier rivals. A successful F1 programme is a very good way of achieving this. So my feeling is that McLaren’s future is building its own engines. Now is a great time to buy up necessary elements to achieve that strategy. There are good people, great intellectual property and basic hardware (such as dynos) available now as manufacturers get out of F1. It is therefore entirely logical for McLaren to try to grab some of it.

These things rarely make big news. I seem to recall that in 1992 Honda withdrew from F1 and sold some of its V12 data to Ferrari, which made sense.

I had a long chat about this subject with McLaren types (no names) over the Suzuka weekend and while they accepted that the argument I am putting forward is logical, they are not ready to confirm that this is what is happening.