Honda "needs to change" for McLaren to stay - Brown

Earlier this week, Brown made it clear that the team is running out of patience with Honda, and hinted that a switch to an alternative supplier – with Mercedes the obvious favourite – is now a real possibility.

McLaren's woes continued on Friday when Fernando Alonso stopped on track during FP1 after an apparent power unit issue.

Brown said that McLaren has to have "confidence" that Honda knows what it has to do and is making progress, and urged the Japanese manufacturer to take more risks.

"The plan right now is to have the Honda in the back of the car," Brown told BBC's Radio 5 Live. "But some things need to happen between now and then for us to have the confidence that we can be at the front of the field next year. So we're working hard on it.

"We need to get competitive, and we need to show regular signs that we are getting competitive. I don't think there's a specific number or place or qualifying in mind, but now we're not racing well, we're not finishing races, in some instances we're not starting races.

"And we can't have that any more. So what needs to happen between now and next season is we need to have confidence that all that is getting fixed, and we're going forward."

Brown made it clear that Honda's way of working, using in-house personnel at its F1 R&D base in a remote part of Japan, has not paid off.

"Eric [Boullier] talks about the F1 culture, they don't have the head-start that the other engine manufacturers have. So I think something cultural, and where the engine's being built, and the people involved, they need some more F1 experience, which they need to be open-minded to get.

"Something needs to change. If you keep doing the same thing you're going to get the same result, and they've been doing the same thing for a couple of years now.

"So they need to take some change, maybe take some risks, maybe do some stuff they wouldn't normally do.

"But you can't just keep doing the same thing, getting the same result, and then just think that by some miraculous thing it's just going to change the next race. They need to approach it a little bit differently."

He stressed that a decision on next year's engine package will have to be made by the end of July, and admitted that there are alternatives.

"We're starting to work on 2018's car – 2018 will be here shortly. We need to make any decisions that impact '18 by the summer break.

"We have a Plan B, we have a Plan C. We've got plans. We're friends with everyone up and down pitlane, so we have coffee and chat about a variety of things. So we're all right."

He also emphasised that the team wants to keep Alonso, but admitted that it won't be easy.

"No doubt we want him to stay. A lot of good race car drivers on the grid, and everyone wants to drive for McLaren, if you take a long view – obviously right now it's a challenge.

"Fernando is who we want in the car alongside Stoffel, and we can keep him if we've got a more competitive car. And if we're not fortunate enough to keep him, we'll find someone else."

He agreed with Alonso's suggestion of a September cut-off point: "Everyone's got to start making decisions for 2018 around there, so that seems a reasonable period.

"We've got a lot of races between now and then, so we're just focussed on getting back up the field. That's what he wants, it's what we want, it's what Honda wants. We want to do it together, but we're running out of time to achieve that."