Honda headed into the 2015 season full of confidence that its engine would power McLaren to at least one victory, but that target now looks an impossibility.
The Woking team were plagued by problems during pre-season testing and only managed to get one car on the starting grid for the season opener in Australia.
Jenson Button managed to finish 11th, but was lapped by Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Yet Honda’s F1 boss Yasuhisa Arai is sticking to that target and reckons they could still achieve it if things progress quickly.
“When will we get a victory? Of course we want it to be this year,” he told Autosport.
“We don’t change our targets, but we had problems – like a pop-up game in the arcade – in winter testing that were unexpected.
“We had many concerns in winter testing so we didn’t achieve the first target,” he said, referring to their aim to have a ‘mature’ engine in Australia.
“But we are still working hard, so we don’t change our other targets. [To win a race] this year is the aim.”
