Honda F1 upgrade will help McLaren's race pace - Fernando Alonso

While Honda has made great strides after its dismal first year back in F1 in 2015, Alonso and Jenson Button have often not been able to compete as well on Sundays as they have in qualifying.

Fuel consumption has played a part in that during races, but the limitations around deploying battery power compared to rival engines have often held McLaren back too.

"It's a new turbo that will allow us more harvesting from the engine, so that's always a good thing," said Alonso when asked by Autosport about the updates from Honda.

"It's not necessarily more power, but for a race situation it could help a little bit in terms of managing the battery, deploying longer on the straights.

"Not a big difference in qualifying, but hopefully for the race it will be an improvement.

"Everything is moving in the right direction, so it's definitely another step forward for us.

"There's still a long way to go, especially in terms of power, which is the main limitation.

"In terms of MGU-H and harvesting we are not too bad this year compared to last year, so this is obviously welcome, another step in this direction, but still a long way to go."

McLAREN TURNAROUND 'AMAZING'

Last year in Canada Alonso complained that his equipment was making him look 'amateur', but one year on he believes McLaren and Honda have reacted well to their troublesome start last season.

"It's pretty amazing the job the team has done in the last 12 months," he said.

"We are now in a situation where we are able to compete, able to race with the others, and that's a positive thing.

"Remembering here last year the situation was quite bad.

"It was race seven of the year and we had quite a few problems in terms of power, pace, reliability and fuel consumption.

"After 12 months we arrive here with a very different situation, lacking still power, of course, and some other things we need to put in place, but we are in a much better position.

"Unfortunately we were hoping for what we have now last year, and this year maybe fighting for the championship, or wins, but it is the way it is.

"At least the team has the right reaction, the right input, everything is more logical, and we can be more optimistic for the future seeing what we have now."