Honda hoping for strong result on home soil at Sukuza

Honda is hoping for a strong performance and result from the Japanese Grand Prix with Toro Rosso. The Japanese manufacturer will be hoping their new power unit does indeed deliver as much performance as is rumoured, with the developments worth up to half a second per lap according to some.

In the team's preview of the race, Honda F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe discussed the challenges the team will face when they arrive at Suzuka, one of the most legendary and challenging tracks on the calendar.

"From the PU point of view, it is technically challenging, with a sequence of mid-speed corners, where good driveability is a key factor when it comes to how we set-up the PU.

"This will be our first home race as Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda and the two drivers have had a very busy time since arriving in Japan, visiting several Honda factories.

"We plan to run the latest specification PU, which we used on Friday in Sochi, so we hope we can have a really strong race in front of our home fans."

Honda introduced a new upgrade to their power unit in Sochi during Friday practice before taking it back out of the cars in order to recalibrate the engines and save mileage ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

The update however worked very well and is worth up to 0.5-0.6s per lap according to some sources in the paddock, a huge boost in performance that Honda believes will put them on par with Racing Point Force India in terms of pace.

Whether the update does indeed work as well as the team say we will have to wait and see however it could come at just the right time with Red Bull replacing Renault power with Honda next season.