Honda has to be "proud" of the progress it has made with its power unit during 2017 but should not have started so far behind its rivals, according to program chief Yusuke Hasegawa.
While McLaren was expecting a big step forward in performance from Honda during the off-season, the new power unit proved to be both unreliable and uncompetitive when pre-season testing got underway at the end of February. Since then, a number of upgrades has allowed McLaren to regularly challenge for a place in Q3 and it scored points with both cars in Hungary (pictured).
While the Hungaroring places far less emphasis on power unit performance, a strong showing in Silverstone highlighted Honda's progress, but Hasegawa told RACER it should have been at the current level from the start of the season.
"It is difficult for me to say it is satisfying," the head of Honda's F1 project said. "Maybe the current level of performance is what we had to achieve at the beginning of the season. So for me I'm thinking, 'At last we can achieve the level of performance we should have been at in Barcelona.'
"So it took around five months. From a normal technical development common sense point of view, to catch up that level in five months, we have to be proud of that. However, to match the Formula 1 calendar, it is too late. So I am half relieved and half very disappointed that we could not achieve this level at the beginning of the season."
At the Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren made it clear it was happy with Honda's commitment but needed to see physical progress from the power unit performance as soon as possible. On whether the recent improvements were important in trying to improve the McLaren relationship, Hasegawa replied: "Yeah of course. They are always asking for development."
And despite uncertainty over the future of the partnership with McLaren, Hasegawa added that Honda feels no need to seek assurances while both sides continue to work closely together.
"Actually we are frequently talking, and we still have very strong communication. So we don't need to make any special meetings with them."
McLaren has been linked with a switch to Renault power units in 2018, having been unable to agree a supply deal with Mercedes for next season.