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Hasegawa looking at heavy workload and points at Hockenheim

Hungary offered perhaps the best evidence to date of McLaren-Honda's performance improvement, with Fernando Alonso's seventh place finish preceded by a top ten qualifying run for the Spaniard and his team mate Jenson Button.

Slowly but surely, the collaboration between the two partners is bearing fruit with the bulk of the progress coming from Honda's power unit, the team's previous weakest link.

Looking towards this weekend's German Grand Prix, Honda 's chief engineer Yusuke Hasegawa believes the venue's layout may offer McLaren-Honda an opportunity to further sustain its momentum.

"Though Hockenheim is another power-oriented circuit, McLaren-Honda has continued to show progress and strength through every race of the European leg," Hasegawa commented.

"And we believe that we can once again perform to the best of our abilities at the German GP this weekend."

Unfortunately, the McLaren-Honda partnership won't have any data to rely on when its drivers take to the track on Friday morning, as the F1 community has not visited the German track since 2014.

For Hasegawa, the shortfall of information implies a heavy workload on site and a few long days.

"As a team, this will be our first race at this track so it will be a busy weekend to fine-tune and set up both the power unit and the chassis.

"It will also be important for us to fix any reliability issues that we have had over the past race weekends, and face the last race before the F1 summer shutdown with a positive outlook. "

At the very minimum, Hasegawa will be looking for a good run in the top on the part of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

"Hopefully, we can repeat the good points finish that we had at the Hungaroring with Fernando’s car and score more championship points before the second half of the season."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.