Honda remains confident that it can make "good progress" with its new engine concept during the latter stages of the season, following a very disappointing start to the year with partner team McLaren.
Just as the FIA confirmed that Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault are now almost equal on power following detailed analysis across the opening three races, Honda remains someway behind its rival engine manufacturers both in terms of power and reliability.
Speaking on Friday after Stoffel Vandoorne incurred a 15-place grid drop for a fifth MGU-H and turbocharger at only the fourth race of the season, Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa insisted the Japanese manufacturer was right to introduce an entirely new concept this year despite making good progress in 2016.
"I don’t think we made a complete mistake [introducing a new concept this year]," he said. "We knew that we had to change everything, not only the package but also the combustion, so we tried to modify all areas.
"Some areas we succeeded, to reduce the weight and lower the COG (centre of gravity), but yeah, definitely we couldn’t get enough power from the combustion."
Hasegawa insists Honda just needs more time to make things right and believes that will happen mid-season when they start to introduce upgrades.
"It is just an excuse, but we still need time," he added. "But we don’t think we made a huge mistake, the direction was right.
"We are very much disappointed with our current situation. But because the base concept is correct, we believe we can make good progress in the middle of the season."
Hasegawa also insisted that Honda still supports the Formula 1 programme, despite a lack of success since its return in 2015.
"Stopping the Formula 1 activity [in previous years] gave us huge damage of the technology catch-up, so we really need to keep this activity going for longer. At this moment our board is very much committed to this activity and, yeah, they are very supportive. It’s no problem at all."
