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Honda's head of Formula One Yusuke Hasegawa has said that the internal combustion engine remains the focus of their upcoming engine improvements, but the manufacturer is planning on waiting before introducing their next upgrade.
The Japanese marque spent two engine upgrade tokens prior to the British Grand Prix to improve efficiency and power, but will hold off spending their remaining 10 tokens for the time being.
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"We still keep trying our efforts to improving our engine, the ICE area," Hasegawa told Autosport. "We have seen some good numbers, we just need to prepare."
"Not in a couple of races but in four or five races we aim to introduce it," he added.
Hasegawa said that Honda plans to use all of their remaining tokens before the end of the season, introducing upgrades in "regular steps".
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Hasegawa said that Honda's last power unit upgrade presented a gain even if it wasn't a very noticeable one.
"We definitely have some gain from the power unit," he said. "We didn't do any back to back tests so I can't tell and the driver didn't feel a big difference but it contributed to the car performance so it was good."
"Fernando [Alonso] got a very quick Q3 lap time which was eighth and although it was eliminated [for a track limits infringement] it was proof of the upgrade," he continued.
Despite the deficit to their rivals, Hasegawa is confident Honda can close the gap to Renault, Ferrari, and Mercedes.
"We are bottom of the pile but we can reduce the gap," he said.
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Probably a wise choice. A good ICE upgrade will also lead to better harvesting for the electric unit. I wonder if they intend to duplicate that feature Mercedes and the others have in their ICEs.