Honda is set to bring an upgrade package worth around 30 horsepower for Toro Rosso to utilise for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Since switching to Toro Rosso from McLaren, the Japanese manufacturer has worked hard to improve both speed and reliability over the course of the 2018 campaign.
Pierre Gasly helped show how the partnership is working after securing a fourth-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix with a clinical drive.
With long straights being a prominent feature of the famous Gilles Villeneuve circuit, it means the drivers are at full throttle for the majority of the lap. Teams often bring engine upgrades in order to find peak performance.
Toyoharu Tanabe, Honda's F1 technical director, stated the focus had been on finding performance gains over reliability, with the internal combustion engine (ICE) the main area of development.
"We are introducing an updated PU for this event, fitting it to both cars," said Tanabe. "The updates are mainly to the ICE, focusing on improving performance. The Montreal circuit is known for its long straights, where over 60% of the lap is spent at full throttle.
"There are slow corners after the long straights and this means that good driveability is again important as is rapid turbo response.
"All these features mean that the power unit is one of the key elements here, which is why it has traditionally been the venue for engine manufacturers to introduce updates.
"Energy deployment is tricky and fuel consumption also needs to be monitored carefully. The safety car has been a feature of many Canadian Grands Prix, so we need to be ready to react and make the right strategy calls in order to have a good result."
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