[Team] McLaren - can they compete?

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

There is a bit of history with Mercedes assisting their rival manufacturers since the hybrid V6 introduction. Mercedes assisted Renault to built a better engine after their disastrous 2014 campaign. This deal was helped because of the Renault-Nissan-Daimler partnership, which was formed in 2010, for their joint road car division.

Mercedes also (apparently) assisted Ferrari in 2015, to which an agreement in principle was rumoured to have been made between Niki Lauda, Sergio Marchionne and Bernie Ecclestone. Apparently for the good of the sport. This deal is something that was not spoken of much, but paddock insiders believe it did indeed happen. Proof of which is now apparent with Ferraris 2017 engine being on par with the Mercedes.

And now the paddock talk is that Honda and Mercedes have just recently begun working together to improve the Honda engine. With an improvement in engine performance expected after the summer break in August. This is probably where the rumours of McLaren seeking out Mercedes engines started a few weeks back.

This is all very interesting, but (and please don't take offence) it also seems a bit far-fetched to me.
I am sure that you have reliable sources but I can't see why (unless there are huge amounts of money involved) why Mercedes would want to help a competitor such as Ferrari or Honda although I can understand the Renault thing due to the quoted & already arranged technical alliance between the two companies regarding road cars.
The rumour I find more believable is that Mario Ilien is personally helping Honda (again, involving huge sums of money) but I didn't think that he was involved with AMG Performance Engines (or whatever it's called) who are responsible for the MB powerplants, the company that was originally Ilmor...