Fernando Alonso is not expecting a step forward from Honda's engine performance upgrades ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Honda spent two of its nine engine development tokens ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, which are designed to be used for performance upgrades during the year. But rather than see an immediate step in Canada, Alonso says the upgrades are centred around reliability (although team-mate Jenson Button cited efficiency as the main reason) and would not bring a step in performance.
Asked what to expect from the upgrade, he said: "Not much. In fact, the engine is exactly the same this weekend compared to Monaco. We did use two tokens of the nine, but they are more for reliability reasons and some of the problems we faced recently. So in terms of performance it should be exactly the same, we will see."
Alonso said McLaren could expect an improvement in performance over the next three or four races.
"With the power unit there are things to improve on the power side and the performance side. Together with Jenson we have very good experience, I have Ferrari experience with similar problems last year at the beginning and he was with Mercedes and experienced also some good things last year because the Mercedes was a very good baseline.
"So together we can input some of the ideas from our experience that will see the light come out in the next three or four races. Unfortunately we will enter into some [grid] penalties because we used three or four [power unit] components of many of the things that we have available, but the important thing is to put a good base for next year and I'm pretty sure we will do it."
Alonso said the Monaco Grand Prix proved that McLaren has more problems than just a power deficit.
"We learn and it was a weekend where we expected a lot, because the power effect is quite low. We didn't perform as good as we thought we would, so we were struggling also with the chassis side. We have a good understanding of what we are missing at the moment in terms of mechanical grip and aerodynamic and the behaviour of the car. There are many things for us to do and improve, not only the power unit. Also the reliability is not good enough - I retired the car in Barcelona, I retired the car in qualifying in Monaco and in the race in Monaco - so there are some plans to improve that as well."