Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa expects McLaren to face a “challenging” weekend in Canada given the engine power demands of the Montreal circuit.
Although the team scored its best result of the season in Monaco, both the squad and the drivers admitted that they expected to be stronger around the streets of Monte Carlo, which are not as demanding on engine power.
However, the long straight of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit will put the Honda engine to the test this weekend.
“Montreal is a very different animal to Monaco, so it will ve a challenging weekend for the team, but we will keep our heads down and focus on what we can do to bring out the best in our package,” Hasegawa said.
Jenson Button, however thinks McLaren should not be “fearful” of the Montreal circuit thanks to the car’s stability under braking.
“Although this is one of the fastest circuits on the calendar, and very power-hungry, one of the strengths of our chassis is stability under heavy braking, so we shouldn’t be fearful of going to a circuit like this and finding ourselves on the back foot,” said Button.
“Our development rate is steep and there’s huge work going on behind the scenes to constantly improve the performance of our whole package, so I’m excited to see how we perform in Canada, given how different the circuit’s characteristics are compared to Monaco.”
Last year, both Button and teammate Fernando Alonso retired from the Canadian GP with exhaust problems.
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