Honda prepares for home race with engine updates in Sochi

Honda is pulling out all the stops to boost its performance next week at Suzuka, putting a series of updates to the test in Sochi that will send Toro Rosso's drivers to the back of the grid on Sunday.

Honda's new components have been in the works for some time, and the engine supplier has agreed with Toro Rosso to introduce the upgrades in Russia in order to avoid grid demotions in Japan.

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"We are introducing some power unit updates on both cars here in Sochi. We're looking at more performance in the long term, which does mean penalties here in the short term," Honda said in a statement released on Thursday.

The new components are rumored to be mainly linked to Honda's ICE, but Pierre Gasly isn't sure how much of a gain the changes will bring.

"Honestly it is not precise yet, it's just an update on the engine side," said the Frenchman.

"Let's see. I don't want to say too much before we see on track tomorrow what it will do exactly. It's an update so it should be positive.

"We will surely start from the back of the grid, it's been a while since we had an update so it's all positive."

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