McLaren's drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne aren't getting their hopes up with regards Honda's latest engine upgrade – the first major performance related upgrade of the season – with both urging caution before seeing it in action.
Although Alonso tested the 'Spec 3' power unit during practice in Baku – with data showing it delivered a small top speed gain – he has yet to fully experience its true potential as Honda have been using the data collected during its initial run to tweak certain settings and optimise engine maps.
The Spaniard is therefore cautiously optimistic, but has warned that it's unlikely to deliver a massive step forward.
"Let’s see, we need to see how the performance is on the track [first]," said Alonso. "In Baku we had the first touch on this spec, it was not maybe at the full potential due to different mappings etc, but let’s see here when we put the engine in.
"It’s a small step, we cannot think that we had an engine in Baku in free practice that will put us in the top five and [then] we remove it from the car – we [would] keep it in that case, but small steps are welcome.
"Obviously Honda is working day and night to improve the situation after three difficult years so we will wait and see. Theoretical numbers are not worth discussing too much."
Team-mate Vandoorne is of the same opinion, but is also pleased to see Honda deliver an upgrade.
"I think we have to wait and see," said the Belgian. "For sure it’s positive that something new is coming and hopefully we will see some improvements on it.
"In the position we are in, every couple of hundredths, tenths we can gain is always beneficial for us. Hopefully it’ll be a step in the right direction."
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