McLaren's suppliers also hopeful of 2016 upgrades in coming races
Monday 4 July 2016 13:07, UK
Honda insist they are working "very hard" to transform their competitiveness for 2017, although are not planning a complete redesign of their power unit.
The McLaren-Honda partnership continues to lag behind F1's pacesetters in its second year back in tandem, although the MP4-31 is a more regular contender for points than its troubled predecessor.
A fundamental change to F1's aerodynamic regulations, along with the freeing up of engine development, for next season is set to present teams such as McLaren with opportunities to overturn the formbook of recent seasons.
Honda's F1 chief Yusuke Hasegawa says they are doing all they can to find a breakthrough.
"We still need to improve the engine's performance," he said at the Austrian GP. "We are currently trying very hard to improve our engine for the next year. That is ongoing.
"Not completely redesign [the engine], but course there are a lot of places that we have to redesign."
McLaren's chances of achieving stronger results before 2017 are likely to hinge on the success of the power unit upgrades Honda will bring to remainder of this season.
The Japanese firm have 12 development tokens left to spent and Hasegawa is "hopeful that we can introduce some of the upgrades in a couple of races".
"I have already confirmed we have seen some good elements, so as soon as we are ready then we will introduce it," he added.
While he acknowledges their core engine performance needs particular attention, Hasegawa is more satisfied with the progress Honda have made with the hybrid element of their power unit, 12 months on from a particularly sobering Austrian GP weekend.
"Regarding the ERS system, we have some limitations of the regulations and the maximum power is 120 kilowatts, so from that point of view we have achieved almost a decent satisfactory level with the turbine," he said.
"Last year here the deployment cut off on half of the straight, it was a disaster. From that point of view we are proud of that [improvement]."
