The Japanese manufacturer is well aware that it needs to unlock more power from its 2017 power unit ahead of a planned upgraded specification coming on tap in the next few races.

As part of that effort, Honda's F1 chief Yusuke Hasegawa says some development concepts will be trialled by McLaren's Oliver Turvey and Stoffel Vandoorne this week to help improve understanding of what needs to be done.

"Some of the ideas [will be tested]," Hasegawa told Motorsport.com about the plans for Bahrain. "But it will not be a totally [new engine]."

Honda had originally slated the introduction of an upgraded power unit for around the time of the Monaco or Canadian Grands Prix, but there are suggestions that an interim step could now be brought in for the Spanish GP too.

Hasegawa has drawn short of putting a firm date on the plan though.

"We don't decide to disclose," he said. "I have my target but because it is not ready we don't say. I don't want to give the fans too much expectation, so I will wait."

But he has made it clear that Honda is not being conservative in its ambitions to make progress as quick as it can, after the frustrations of recent races.

"In this situation we cannot wait," he said. "We really need to have some improvement."

MGU-H dramas

As well as working on the power front, Honda is also having to address the MGU-H problems that hit both its drivers over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Analysis of the broken units which both Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso suffered is ongoing, with Honda keen for answers as to why it faced four reliability problems at Sakhir.

Hasegawa hopes that solutions to prevent a repeat in the future will be ready as early as this week too.

"Still we need a few days to find out [what happened]," said Hasegawa. "But we really need to put something for the test, even if it for the last and final day."

Explaining what happened with Vandoorne prior to the start, Hasegawa said: "We don't know the cause, but the water pressure dropped….it is in the MGU-H area. It looks like the same issue, but a little bit different but we haven't had time to properly analyse."

Hasegawa added that Honda had been surprised to suffer such failures in Bahrain, after relatively few problems in the first two grands prix.

"Yes – and obviously disappointed," he said. "At first we thought this was the third race, and every part mileage was longer. But Stoffel's MGU-H was brand new here, so it wasn't just caused by mileage. So we are eager to find out. We don't know. We are very surprised why here we have these failures."