21/09/2016
NEWS STORY
With three tokens remaining following its last update in Belgium, Honda is seeking one final upgrade before the end of the season. However, with the update meaning a grid penalty the Japanese manufacturer is loathe to introduce the upgrade at its home race and is therefore looking to Malaysia next weekend.
"We introduced a new engine in Spa and at that moment we had nine races so we need to introduce one more engine," said Yusuke Hasegawa, according to Autosport.
"If you split the nine races it could be Malaysia or Japan or the USA," he admitted. "We do not want to get a penalty at Japan, so Malaysia makes sense, we are still discussing it with the team.
"I don't think the fans would let me take a penalty in Japan," he added. "I would not be allowed to walk into the circuit!"
Asked if Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button will get the update at the same time, and therefore the penalties, he admitted that this still needs to be discussed with McLaren.
"I don't want to get both cars behind from a race tactics and constructors' point of view," he added. "It might be better to split the tactics for the cars."
The Spa upgrade centred on the internal combustion engine (ICE) and turbo compressor, but it is unclear if this will remain the area of focus.
"We may introduce it in a different area because once we change the combustion it will cost us so much setting time we do not want to put a lot of resource on it this year," said Hasegawa.