McLaren executive director Zak Brown has ruled out the possibility of the team building its own Formula One engines as a solution to its problematic relationship with Honda.
Honda's revamped engine has fallen well short of expectations this season, raising fears of a third consecutive season off the pace for McLaren. Fernando Alonso criticised the Japanese manufacturer in winter testing and after the season opener in Australia, where he ran 10th for much of the race before retiring, said the team was last in terms of pure performance.
McLaren has already made an exploratory approach to Mercedes about rekindling its former engine in case it cannot continue with Honda. Some have suggested McLaren could use its considerable resources -- namely car division McLaren Automotive -- to build its own engines in future, though Brown says that is not an option.
"Automotive is a different business unit with some common shareholders who we work very closely with," he said. "Their engine is a McLaren engine but the F1 team has a different set of economic priorities and ways to go racing so that is not a conversation that we've had.
"What we can do in 10 years, who knows -- but that is not a conversation [for now]. We are not an engine builder, we are a racing team and a car constructor."
Alonso's future hangs over everything for McLaren this season, with the Spaniard in the third and final year of the contract he signed ahead of the 2015 season. Brown has no problem with Alonso venting his dissatisfaction and says it is a signal of how desperately he wants to return to winning ways.
"I think Fernando wants to be very competitive, and if you look at any world champion driver, they are not satisfied unless they are winning. That is why we have them.
"You would expect him to make comments about competitiveness - so I don't think that is a surprise or unhealthy. It is tough on all of because and we get interviewed a lot, every once in a while you let a little emotion get to you and you say something that gets construed in the wrong way, but the relationship is very healthy."