Honda are not sure if their latest power unit will be a step forward for McLaren and may not roll it out for the forthcoming Canadian Grand Prix weekend.
But at the same time it is full steam ahead by the Japanese manufacturer as they seek to resolve their engine issues that have plagued them since they returned to the sport.
Asked by Racer if they will bolt on new power units for Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoornne in Montreal, Hasegawa replied, “It is not sure, I don’t give up. We’re trying very hard. But until Thursday [in Canada] I can’t decide. Already, we have had some performance factor, but if it is very small, it’s not worth changing engine for the next one.”
“Also, if the setting is not good enough, it damages the performance, even if it had good power. We saw some small upgrades [in performance] and still we haven’t decided to start working on settings with this specification.”
“We will have a big discussion about that, whether we stick with the next step of the engine even if the step up is small or can we try another step up in performance? Obviously it is very tight to introduce a big update.”
“If we are not confident enough to set up that specification it will cause some drivability issues, so the settings are also very important. But please understand I haven’t decided yet.”
“We have some other parts in development but we haven’t decided if we can introduce it, if we can set it up and if we can check the reliability. It is obvious everything is not ready, but we have some factors (that are).”
“As soon as we’ve got some good performance from the engine there’s no reason to wait. We will introduce it as soon as we are ready. If we have to give up on Canada then we will introduce it in Baku, and if not then it will go to Austria or Silverstone,” explained Hasegawa.
Big Question: Are Honda doing enough to sort out the engine issues?