Honda F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe says that supplying both Red Bull teams since last season has been a crucial factor in allowing the Japanese manufacturer to improve the pace of its development programme.
Honda returned to F1 in 2015 with McLaren, a year after the start of the sport's V6 turbo hybrid era. But it was painful initiation for the engine supplier which was eventually rejected by McLaren before it hooked up with Toro Rosso for 2018.
Slowly but surely, Honda got a grip on its hybrid technology, but progress really ensued last season after it added, as planned, Red Bull Racing to its supply deal.
The partnership yielded three fantastic outright wins for Honda, courtesy of Max Verstappen. But Tanabe-san says Honda hasn't rested on its recent laurels.
"Supplying two teams last year, with both of them part of the same family, linked by Red Bull Technology, allowed us to up the speed of our development and that is something that will carry over into this season," said the Japanese engineer.
"Everyone at our facilities in Sakura, Japan and Milton Keynes, UK has been working very hard to get even more power out of our PU.
"Of course, power is nothing without reliability and this year, that is even more challenging as the calendar will be the longest ever in F1, with 22 races."
Thanks to a status quo in F1 in 2020 on the engine regulation front, Tanabe-san is confident his team of engineers will be able to make further strides this season.
"The technical regulations relating to the PU have hardly hanged since last year," he added.
"Therefore, we have been able to make progress based on the experience we gained across all four of our cars in 2019.
"I believe we can make a step forward and our aim is to obtain even better results than we did last year. In any sport, your performance can only be judged in relation to that of your competitors, so until we start racing, it’s impossible to predict just how successful we can be."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
