Honda delays Canada upgrade to last minute

Honda will wait until the last minute to make a decision on whether to introduce an upgrade to its power unit at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

The original plan was for Honda to update its power unit in Montreal, with the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve a very power-sensitive track. However, the Japanese manufacturer has been hit by a number of reliability issues so far this season as well as a lack of performance, and head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa admits a new engine will only be taken if it provides a big enough step forward.

"It is not sure," Hasegawa told RACER. "I don't give up it. We're trying very hard. But until Thursday (before Canada) I can't decide. Already, we have had some performance factor, but if it is very small, it's not worth changing engine for the next one. Also, if the setting is not good enough, it damages the performance, even if it had good power.

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"We saw some small upgrades [in performance] and still we haven't decided to start working on settings with this specification. So maybe as soon as I go back to Japan we will have a big discussion about that, whether we stick with the next step of the engine even if the step up is small or can we try another step up in performance? Obviously it is very tight to introduce a big update."

With power unit penalties already starting to mount for Honda, Hasegawa explains it takes time to ensure the maximum performance can be extracted from any upgrade.

"If we are not confident enough to set up that specification it will cause some drivability issues, so the settings are also very important. But please understand I haven't decided yet. We have some other parts in development but we haven't decided if we can introduce it, if we can set it up and if we can check the reliability. It is obvious everything is not ready, but we have some factors (that are)."

Despite his words of caution, Hasegawa added Honda will not delay any performance updates once he is confident in them.

"As soon as we've got some good performance from the engine there's no reason to wait. We will introduce it as soon as we are ready.

"If we have to give up on Canada then we will introduce it in Baku, and if not then it will go to Austria or Silverstone."