While HRC president Koji Watanabe admits that making his power unit competitive will take time, he insists that Lawrence Stroll still believes in the manufacturer.

Sadly, we've been here before. Late to the party when hybrid was first inflicted on the sport, Honda's much-lauded reunion with McLaren wasn't just a failure, it was an abject disaster.

As the Woking team was ultimately forced to look elsewhere or face ruin, Red Bull gave Honda a trial run with its sister team, Toro Rosso. The rest is history.

Now, in partnership with Aston Martin, the British team is facing the same problem McLaren had to deal with over a decade earlier. Between them, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have score 5 finishes from 14 starts. The Spaniard's best qualifying position is 17th and his teammate 19th. The sole point scored came in Monaco, and was more about the errors of FOM and the FIA than any improvement from the car or engine.

Heading to Austria, the eighth round of the season, Watanabe is keen to make clear that the regulations overhaul, certainly as far as Honda is concerned, wasn't simply about taking up where it left off with Red Bull.

"It is important to recognise that the current situation is fundamentally different from the time we worked together with Red Bull," he tells the official F1 website. "The regulation is quite difficult, it is a new partnership with Aston Martin, the fuel is Aramco, and a new partner, and the lubricant is Valvoline, which is also new.

"So, everything is new for us and it's not easy," he adds.

As has been made clear previously, other than this, after Honda announced its withdrawal from F1 at the end of 2021, it lost many of its top engineers, some of whom were to join Red Bull Powertrains, while others moved to different parts of the company.

"The recovery from the delay caused by our previous withdrawal has taken time," admits Watanabe. "So, the late start of development, as well as the time required to rebuild necessary capacities and capabilities and bring back the required talent have been a significant factor."

Echoing the claim of 'to finish first, first you have to finish', ever since the enormity of the job in hand became clear, Honda's first focus was on reliability, and as that is slowlt resolved the manufacturer will look to pace and performance.

However, Watanabe is keen to make clear that there is no easy fix, despite an upgraded ICE scheduled for after the summer break.

"It will not dramatically change the situation overnight so our approach is unchanged and we will continue to work with a long-term perspective."

"Long-term perspective", is hardly what Fernando Alonso wants to hear - the Spaniard having been part of the 2015 debacle at Woking - and though the two-time world champion is said to be, understandably, looking elsewhere, Watanabe insists that Lawrence Stroll remains committed.

"He strongly believes in Honda's capability," he says. "Of course, he's not satisfied and I'm not satisfied with the current situation but we discuss often how we can recover the current situation, including the PU performance and the chassis performance and team operation and everything to return to the position where we want."

The Japanese is also adamant that Honda remains fully committed to F1 itself.

"There is no change in our evaluation or our commitment to HRC or motorsport activities at this stage. Taking the challenge of Formula 1 remains part of Honda's DNA, and it has not changed. We have a long-term commitment."