Alonso: McLaren could face Honda upgrade dilemma at Suzuka

With the team having been boosted by recent strong performances in Singapore and Malaysia, there is a clear target of further Q3 appearances and points from Suzuka this weekend.

However, the situation could be complicated if Honda offers up some extra horsepower with new power unit developments.

For that will prompt some debate about whether it is worth taking a grid penalty hit for the power lift, or if it is better to stay with the older version and start further up on Sunday.

Speaking about the situation, Alonso said: "It is the home GP for Honda, so we want to do well there.

"We know how important that race is for the team. About 30-40 per cent of our engineers are Japanese, so we have a big moment of the year.

"The families are there, the Japanese fans, they support a lot our team, so it is a very special weekend for us and we want to perform well.

"If there is a new spec engine or any improvements, that will be with a penalty and we will start last. So it is difficult to compensate if we want to start last with an extra horsepower, or do we want to do a perfect weekend and try to score points? We will see.

"It is not up to us. The Honda engineers will tell us if first if there is an evolution ready that we don't know yet and if there is something ready, if it is better to take that opportunity or not. We will see."