Yusuke Hasegawa has praised McLaren's performance as a team in the Monaco Grand Prix but wants more from Honda itself.
Fernando Alonso finished fifth and Jenson Button ninth at the end of a chaotic Monaco Grand Prix, handing McLaren 12 points which moved it up to seventh in the constructors' championship. While the result was a strong one, Alonso had to hold off quicker cars throughout the second half of the race and Honda's head of F1 project Hasegawa admits he was hoping for more in terms of raw pace.
“The car performance is not as good as we expected," Hasegawa said. "We thought our car could fit to this circuit more but as a racing result finishing in fifth and ninth is very good. It is very encouraging for the factory side and our drivers as well of course.”
And while the result was an important one for Honda's confidence, Hasegawa says he wants to secure similar positions based on performance in future.
“Of course like me in my position - the technical engineering side - we try to improve the real technical performance rather than just luck or racing incidents. But as a team performance point of view we definitely have two very good drivers and this result comes from their ability. Also from the team tactics as well, the timing of choosing the tyres was very good.
“So this means that we can show our team performance with this very complicated race, which is very encouraging.”
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