Honda looking to expand F1 presence by getting involved with a second team

"At this moment we don’t have any room to provide any resources to another team, but we should be that type of manufacturer I think," said Honda boss Yusuke Hasegawa this week.

"We have to prepare more resources and organisation. Maybe at the end of next year we have to say that we are ready to prepare an engine for another team, so we will prepare the organisation."

Hasegawa emphasised that this didn't mean that Honda was currently in active talks with any teams in the paddock about an engine supply deal, although he added that there had been some informal conversations around the paddock.

"Actually everybody is asking me if there’s any possibility that Honda can supply an engine, but it’s just chatting. From a concrete business point of view, no, we don’t have anything."

In the shorter term, Honda has said it plans to spend its final three engine development tokens and introduce a final engine upgrade possibly as early as Malaysia. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso might receive the upgrade at different races, with Hasegawa keen to avoid taking an engine penalty at Honda's home race at Suzuka.

“Yes, I don’t think the fans will let me take a penalty in Japan. I will not be allowed to walk into the circuit!” he laughed.

After that, Honda will be able to focus on finishing off the 2017-specification engine - although Hasegawa suggested that most of the work had been completed already.

"Actually we almost finished our development for this year," he said, while deftly avoiding directly answering the question of how many people had been involved in the work up to now. “I can’t tell you the number of people but almost 80-90% are on next year already.

"Still we need some confirmation like reliability checking, but we won’t start any more designs and drawings this season."