Mercedes 'engine performance is incredible' - Honda

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Honda's head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa says Mercedes' "engine performance is incredible" but is confident the Japanese manufacturer is gaining.

Mercedes introduced a new specification of power unit at the Belgian Grand Prix, but the upgrade appeared to show an even bigger step forward in performance at Monza. Having seen Mercedes dominate the race, Hasegawa admits it shows just how strong the defending champions' power unit performance is.

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"Yeah, always – not only here from the start of the season," Hasegawa said when it was put to him Mercedes seemed to have improved. "Their engine performance is incredible. To make this event much better we have to catch up."

However, when it was suggested it means there is more work than ever required by Honda, Hasegawa replied: "I don’t think so. Power point of view the improvement ratio is not our issue. It’s bigger than Mercedes."

And Hasegawa says he is not too downbeat by the lack of points scored by McLaren at Monza, saying 12th place for Jenson Button was about the position he expected without any reliability issues for the top five teams in the constructors' championship.

"Actually we knew this is the most tough circuit for engine and with our engine power delivery point of view we knew we couldn’t expect a lot. The result is very sad to say but without any accident or retirement of the top teams we thought we couldn’t get a point.

"From that situation we have to appreciate the drivers and the team showed the maximum performance that we could do now. "

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.