McLaren will be reunited with Mercedes engines from the 2021 Formula One season, as the former champions go back to using the German manufacturer’s power units in their bid to return to the top.
The Woking-based team are supplied by Renault, having joined forces last year with the French company.
They will see out that deal to the end of 2020, before switching back to Mercedes as part of a long-term agreement until at least 2024.
“We are delighted to welcome McLaren back to the Mercedes-Benz racing family with this new power unit supply agreement,” said Mercedes’ motorsports head Toto Wolff in a statement with McLaren on Saturday in Sochi at the Russian Grand Prix.
“We hope that this new long-term agreement marks another milestone for McLaren as they aim to take the fight to the sport’s top teams, including our Mercedes works team.”
The McLaren-Mercedes partnership ran from 1995 to 2014.
It turned McLaren, enduring a slump after their dominance of the late 1980s and early 90s with Honda, into a force to be reckoned with again.
The combination won 78 races, a constructors’ title and three drivers’ titles with Mika Hakkinen (1998-’99) and Lewis Hamilton who raced to his first F1 title in 2008 with the team.
McLaren find themselves in a similar phase now, rebuilding after three dismal years with Honda, the Japanese manufacturer they rejoined forces with at the end of 2014 to try to recreate their dominance from 30 years ago.
Fielding a fresh driver line-up of British rookie Lando Norris and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, they have made big strides and are battling for fourth in the overall standings with Renault’s works team.
But they haven’t won a race since the season-ending 2012 Brazilian GP, when they were still powered by Mercedes.
McLaren’s new deal with the German manufacturer, whose power units have set the benchmark in F1’s turbo-hybrid era, coincides with a planned rules overhaul aimed at levelling the playing field and creating better racing.
Mercedes are set to supply four of F1’s 10 teams after the McLaren deal, including their own factory outfit, former champions Williams and Canadian team Racing Point.
Ferrari will supply three teams (their works team, Haas and Alfa Romeo), Honda two (Red Bull and Toro Rosso), while Renault will have only its factory team running its engines.