McLaren say Honda’s upgraded engine which was introduced in practice on Friday is exceeding expectations.
Honda introduced a new, upgraded power unit where the final of their engine upgrade tokens were used. Only Fernando Alonso ran the new unit in practice but reverted to an older one in qualifying and the race.
Eric Bouiller told Autosport that the new power unit is exceeding expectations according to the data.
“It was very positive.
“It actually beat all the expectations on the data, the dyno measures.
“It worked as per plan, and has improved.
“So we introduced this engine here because we know it’s a track layout that doesn’t suit our package, and then run it from the race in the USA.”
Fernando Alonso will use the upgraded power unit from the United States Grand Prix while Jenson Button will not get to use it until Mexico.
Honda boss Yasuhisa Arai confirmed the lack of horsepower and deployment is still a severe hindrance.
“At this circuit, on the engine itself, there has been a scheduled improvement, but total horsepower, with deployment, is still weak.”
