Following the tight confines of Monaco, the long straights at Montreal, which precedes a return to Europe and a string of fast tracks, a number of manufacturers will introduce their first upgrades this weekend, not least Honda.

Though performing better than in previous seasons, the Japanese manufacturer has not quite lived up to the promise shown in pre-season testing, Pierre Gasly's fourth in Bahrain owing much to the retirements of Kimi Raikkonen and the Red Bulls.

However, while much of the focus this weekend will be on Renault's upgrade, which the French manufacturer hopes will pay dividends for its own team as well as Red Bull and McLaren, Honda will have its own update available for Toro Rosso.

"We are introducing an updated PU for this event, fitting it to both cars," said Honda's technical director, Toyoharu Tanabe. "The updates are mainly to the ICE, focusing on improving performance.

"The Montreal circuit is known for its long straights, where over 60% of the lap is spent at full throttle," he added. "There are slow corners after the long straights and this means that good driveability is again important as is rapid turbo response. All these features mean that the power unit is one of the key elements here, which is why it has traditionally been the venue for engine manufacturers to introduce updates.

"Energy deployment is tricky and fuel consumption also needs to be monitored carefully," he admits.

With Adrian Newey suggesting that the Renault upgrade is worth "about one percent (more power), which is a tenth of a second" and not "make or break", according to Reuters, Red Bull will no doubt be keenly eyeing any improvements that Honda might make.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by meatball, 06/06/2018 21:22

"sounds like Honda should have this engine formula figured out just in time for the engine formula change! F1 shoots itself in the foot... Again... "

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2. Posted by Rock Doc, 06/06/2018 18:08

"Honda seem to be getting it done this year. Still got a long way to go, but they are mixing it with the midfield teams this year.

Of course having Gasly is a big help as well."

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Honda updates mainly to Internal Combustion Engine

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