McLaren has confirmed that its engine supplier Honda will introduce an almost entirely new power unit for the 2017 season as it seeks to close the performance gap to its rivals.
Honda has struggled since its return to Formula 1 as an engine supplier to McLaren. It endured poor performance and reliability in its debut year. However it has made big strides in both areas, but still lacks outright horsepower compared to Mercedes.
The Japanese company had hinted that it would introduce an entirely new power unit in 2017, but stopped short of confirming it.
However McLaren technical director Tim Goss has now confirmed, with the scrapping of F1's development token system, that Honda has redesigned its power unit, having learned from its previous two seasons.
"The token system that was applied to engine development for the past few seasons has been discontinued," Goss said.
"For 2017, the Honda engine architecture and layout have been altered to serve both for performance and packaging needs.
"The new power unit takes much of the learning from the past two seasons, but has been specifically redesigned for this season."
