Honda's F1 chief Yusuke Hasegawa says the Japanese manufacturer has "more confidence" in the progress made on its engine after the Chinese Grand Prix, though he still expects a difficult weekend for McLaren in Bahrain.

For the third year in a row McLaren is equipped with an underpowered Honda engine, which is significantly down on power compared to its rivals. The heroics of Fernando Alonso has meant McLaren has retired from points-paying positions in Australia and China after making Q2 on both occasions despite the obvious limitations of the engine.

Hasegawa says the opening two races have been crucial in helping to understand the engine's problems.

"After a wet and cold weekend in China, we are now heading off to Bahrain where we expect the conditions to be the complete opposite, dry and hot," Hasegawa said. "The race result in China was a big disappointment; despite the result, however, we took away a number of positives and, up until the retirements, we had an encouraging race in tricky conditions.

"I have more confidence in the progress of our PU [power unit] reliability after the first two grands prix of the season, and I am now looking forward to seeing our performance in Bahrain, where hopefully we can continue to build on our momentum at what is something of a home race for McLaren-Honda."

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McLaren went to the Shanghai International Circuit expecting to struggle on its long backstraight, though its chances were helped by a chaotic opening stint caused by a damp start. Bahrain also features two long straights and, with weather unlikely to be a factor as it was in China, Hasegawa is braced for another challenging race.

"The hot conditions and two long front and back straights of the track will be strenuous on the power units, so we are not expecting this weekend to be easy for us. We will concentrate to find the best set-up during practice together with McLaren, as well as working on ensuring our reliability. We hope to show fans a good race here and we'll make our best effort to collect some points."