McLaren-Honda was like the tumultuous relationship everyone had to keep tabs on in high school—the one doomed to not work out, but that somehow always showed up holding hands the next morning before class. So, naturally, is going about like you’d expect from a high-school relationship.

McLaren finally , Renault, for the 2017 season, and Honda wound up in front of Toro Rosso’s locker to smooth talk a multi-year deal starting in 2018. Now McLaren-Honda needs to finish out the year, like having to sit by your all-important high-school ex in science class.

McLaren and driver Fernando Alonso weren’t shy in Honda brought into the relationship, but Honda, the one with a lot more to lose in the breakup, kept quiet. After to win McLaren’s heart back, Honda and motorsport chief Masashi Yamamoto now get to dish all of the details we never heard. From , emphasis ours:

“Working with McLaren, I’ve realised that they are a very big company which is very systematic,” said Yamamoto in an interview on the Honda Racing website.

“It’s obviously very strong because of that but at the same time they can find it hard to adapt to change.

“Compare that to Toro Rosso, it is a company that is growing. It is very important for us to work in partnership together, heading towards the same goal.

“So for us we are very much looking forward to being able to work closer.

That food analogy is a weird, weird thing to think about.

Either way, dirt probably isn’t the best thing to put in your homemade stew.