It’s not entirely clear if Honda will be bringing a new upgrade of their engine to Canada or not but there is little doubt that shove is always in short supply at a point-n-squirt track which Canada is becoming these days due to the reliance on horsepower over grip.
It would be nice to have more shove int eh back of the McLaren and while Honda Honda chief Yusuke Hasegawa said he has seen the dyno results of the new engine upgrade and is encouraged, they are not yet prepared to commit to Canada:
“There is no doubt that power is important for Canada,” said Hasegawa.
“It’s stop and go circuit, so fuel consumption is important.
“I want to introduce some of the updates of course, but at this moment, we can’t confirm.
“The planned update in Sakura is on dyno, I saw some of the good results.
“The thing we have to do is confirm that the technology is OK.”
Reliability will be a big factor at this point with the team scoring a dual-points finish in Monaco and they will be keen to keep finishing races in the points but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
It’s a tough call for sure and I tend to think they should bring it to see how well their upgrades have worked. At this point, it’s about unlimited engine development next year and why not get started early? They’re not vying for a championship this year but again, points are worth millions so you have to balance that equation.
Hat Tip: AUTOSPORT
I wonder if there is a reliability component to the decision?
Do they get more benefit from finishing, but having no chance of points, or giving the third best chassis the push it deserves, with no chance of finishing?
the only reason to not bring more power is to ensure there is no more embarrassing DNF’s due to the thing that falls squarely at Honda’s front door….
I’d say go with the flow. Don’t change it when things are looking up.