McLaren-Honda to continue without title sponsor in 2017

London - It will be 2018 at least before McLaren can finally put the first title sponsor on its cars since 2013.

That is the news from the Honda-powered team's new executive director Zak Brown, who recently left the leading Formula 1 sponsorship-procuring company to join McLaren. 

Regarding the search for a new title sponsor, he is quoted by Spain's Marca sports newspaper: "I'm talking to many people, but we'll focus on having a big brand for 2018.

Brown added: "Honestly, negotiations have already begun, but they're at an early stage," Brown added.

He admitted that his search would be helped if the Anglo-Japanese collaboration was more competitive, but Brown said he is confident of a big step forward for 2017.

Brown said: "Everyone is optimistic about 2017, Honda is providing more power and if we can make the same jump we took from 2015 to 2016, we will be in a good position."

A photo posted by McLaren-Honda (@mclaren) on Oct 29, 2016 at 7:14am PDT