Honda are hoping to match the power output of the Ferrari engine at the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix when it debuts its upgraded power unit.
That is the claim of Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai, who told Autosport that the ‘Mk3’ unit will feature changes to the combustion chamber, intake and exhaust layout.
Honda are expected to use the majority, if not all, of their remaining development tokens on the upgrade, before switching focus to next years engine, which he revealed is also in the early stages of development.
“Spa is the final upgrade for this year, with ancillaries to follow in the following race,” said Arai.
“Mk3 [will debut] in Spa [and] we have already started development on next season’s power unit.
“Mk4 will be on the same level as Mercedes, that is the target; Mk3 will be on a level similar to Ferrari, which is what we’re aiming for. It’s a big step.”
Arai also believes the performance of their engine, which he claims is already “better than Renault”, has been masked by McLaren’s chassis problems.
“[The car has] not so good mechanical grip, or aero, compared with Red Bull there is still a big gap,” he added.
“We have checked the GPS data; the chassis and aero package needs time and fine-tuning, such as wing angle, ride heights, suspension settings.”
