MONTREAL, Canada -- Honda has upgraded its turbocharger ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, but Fernando Alonso says the update is aimed at improving the harvesting capability of the power unit rather than a pure brake horsepower boost.
It is the first performance upgrade Honda has introduced this year after the team spent two development tokens on the upgrade ahead of the weekend. But Alonso played down the significance of the upgrade over a single qualifying lap, saying the improvement will benefit the MGU-H's ability to recover energy from the turbo.
"I think it's just an update on the power unit with a new turbo that will allow us to have a little bit more harvesting from the engine," he said. "That's always a good thing, but it's not necessarily more power. Let's say for a race situation it will help a little bit in managing the batteries or deploying a little longer on the straights. It's not a big difference in qualifying, but let's hope so for the race."
The improved efficiency of the energy harvesting system will have knock-on benefits for fuel consumption too, which the team struggled with in Canada last year.
"I think it's tough here for the fuel and it will be tough again this year no matter what harvesting you have. But everything is moving in the right direction, so it will be another step forward for us. It's still a long way to go, especially in terms of power, which is the main limitation now.
"In terms of MGU-H and harvesting we are not so bad this year compared to last year, so this is obviously welcome and another step, but there is still a long way to go."