Honda only 50% satisfied with 2016 development

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Honda's head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa says he is only 50% satisfied with the Japanese manufacturer's progress this season.

An upgrade introduced in Malaysia is Honda's last development of the season, with both drivers now having received their final power units for the remaining four races. Despite an unexpectedly poor performance in Japan, Hasegawa says there has been clear improvement throughout the season but it is not enough to be satisfied with the work done this year.

"Yes, our development for 2016 is complete, but of course we will continue to fine-tune the power units at every track," Hasegawa told F1i. "My satisfaction level is at 50%, and I am split because though we have made lots of progress this year, we are not yet at the level of the top level teams.

"What we have done this year will of course help next year, but at the moment, we are completely focused on the early part of 2017. What will happen within next year comes after that."

Following increasingly consistent top ten finishes, McLaren was uncompetitive at Suzuka as Fernando Alonso finished 16th ahead of team-mate Jenson Button in 18th position. Hasegawa says Honda will work to learn from the setback in order to recover as quickly as possible.

"The two positives from Suzuka are: a reality check and humility from a poor performance which in turn helps the team reflect back deeper than we would normally, and will motivate the team to do better in the next race, and getting penalties out of the way for Jenson’s engine.

"We think that Austin should be a better track for us than Suzuka, but it is difficult to predict at this point."

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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.