Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell has warned against underestimating Honda, despite their current woes, and has tipped the Japanese manufacturer to "come good pretty quickly".
McLaren's engine supplier Honda has struggled to get on top of its performance and reliability issues this season, despite it being their third term since returning to the sport under the current power unit regulations.
Cowell, who has been in charge of Mercedes' engine development during their dominant period, says Honda and McLaren shouldn't be written off.
"I think collectively we’ve helped with convergence in Formula 1 in the opening season, performance development through the year,” said Cowell.
“But then the opportunity to do a big change with Honda coming in, we all agreed that Honda could have that same opportunity to change everything in the first year and then the request came from manufacturers in addition to Honda saying ‘please can we take this crazy token table away because it’s bad for the sport?’
“It’s bad if somebody can’t train to get better and so we agreed, yeah, take the table away because it’s better for the sport because it means that you can innovate, you can introduce whatever you like.
“I think none of us should underestimate the technical prowess of Honda and of McLaren and I think my money is on that combination coming good and coming good pretty quickly."
