Honda poised for next engine upgrades

Honda is planning to introduce some more engine upgrades in the next few races, as it continues to work with McLaren on closing the gap to its rivals.

Fernando Alonso, McLaren MP4-31 rear wing end plate

The Japanese manufacturer has been open that it has plenty of development ideas being worked on, but key to them being introduced has been working out how best to spend its remaining tokens.

It spent two tokens at the Canadian Grand Prix on turbo changes, and now its F1 engine chief Yusuke Hasegawa has revealed that further improvements are now on the horizon.

"We are hopeful that we can introduce some of the upgrades in a couple of races," he explained. "I have already confirmed we see some good elements, so as soon as we are ready we will introduce it."

Major redesign

Honda has scope to undertake a pretty major revamp of its power unit for 2017, now that the token restriction system has been abolished.

Although Hasegawa has denied suggestions that next year's design will be all new, he has dropped the firmest hint yet that the changes will be pretty extensive.

"Not completely redesigned," he said. "Of course there are a lot of places we need to redesign."

He added: "We introduced a new turbo in Canada, [but] of course we are never satisfied with the performance, there is always room to improve.

"Regarding an ERS system point of view, we have some limitations in the regulations. The maximum power is 120 Kw and also the energy is limited, so from that point of view I think we have achieved almost a decent, satisfying level from the turbine.

"Last year here the power was cut off in half of the straight, so it was a disaster last year. So from that point of view we are proud of that.

"But on the other hand, the internal combustion point of view still we need to improve the engine performance and we are currently trying the very hard job to redesign, not redesign but to improve the engine for next year, so that is ongoing."