Honda “tried to do too much” with 2017 concept changes

Honda F1 chief Yusuke Hasegawa concedes the Japanese manufacturer’s engine changes asked too much in too short a time period but has faith his team is on top of its unreliability issues.

Heading into the 2017 Formula 1 campaign Honda prepared with a near-complete concept change to its power unit development but were hit with constant mechanical woes during pre-season testing while it still remained underpowered against its engine rivals.

The latest failure ultimately ended its partnership with McLaren, which triggered a deal that sees Toro Rosso pick up Honda as its exclusive engine supplier while McLaren takes on Renault power from 2018, as the Japanese manufacturer aims for another fresh beginning in F1 for next season.

Honda chief Hasegawa confessed its radical changes for the start of the 2017 season caused additional problems which it has been battling to fix throughout the campaign.

“From last year to this year, we have completely changed the configuration concept of the engine,” Hasegawa said. “We tried to do a little bit too much, the modification, so that’s why I have decided to keep the concept for next year, so that from a reliability point of view we are pretty much confident.

“So we need to squeeze more performance from the same concept of the engine, so that’s what we are currently doing.”

Honda has shown encouraging signs of recovery having suffered just one in-race engine retirement (Fernando Alonso in the United States Grand Prix) since the Malaysian race while juggling various specification updates.