Honda's approach to Formula 1 now 'logical'

Honda has made considerable improvements this year, although McLaren still languishes in seventh place in the constructors' championship.

At the midway point of the season, Alonso can at least see the changes that have been made in both Honda's approach and its reliability.

"It feels much better, it feels much more normal," assessed Alonso.

"Everything is more logical, more of a racing team, with all the facilities working 100%, and with more people in the factory in Sakura.

"I saw in the presentation we have used the same [number of] engines as Mercedes [Nico Rosberg] - three units used so far in the championship, which was quite a surprise.

"But definitely everything seems more logical, and we are more ready for this challenge, whereas last year we were just too immature with the project."

Alonso feels Honda has this year been able to focus on correcting specific issues where it knows it remains weak, whereas in 2015 the headaches were almost too numerous to mention.

"It's a completely different thing this year. Last year we had to solve so many problems that it was never enough," added Alonso.

"We had to solve the reliability issues, the small mistakes we were making, the facilities were not running 100%, we didn't have enough people, and we didn't have enough deployment.

"There were many, many things to put in place, so the steps were difficult to feel because everything was covered by the bigger picture.

"This year we've been able to concentrate more on the details, everything is more sensible, and the smaller steps we make we can feel.

"That's also because we are in the middle of the pack, not two seconds away from the Sauber.

"This year, with every three or four tenths we will overtake maybe six cars in the next qualifying, so it's quite welcome."

While progress has been made with deployment and reliability, Honda's priority now is power gains.

"I'm more optimistic now, but we've still a long way to go in terms of power," said Alonso.

"We have reliability more or less in line with the others, and deployment-wise we are also at the level of the top teams.

"But in terms of power we are still missing a lot of it, and we are still working very hard on that."