Honda's Yusuke Hasegawa has played down growing reports that McLaren will get a highly-anticipated engine upgrade in Montreal next month. "It doesn't necessarily have to be Canada," the Japanese is quoted by the Spanish sports daily Marca. "We do not know when we will use the tokens."

Honda and McLaren officials are on the record in admitting their relief that the controversial 'token' development system, designed to curb wild spending by manufacturers in F1, is being scrapped altogether for 2017. "We are developing all the time," admitted Hasegawa, "and if we didn't need to worry about the tokens we would be prepared for this upgrade. But at the moment we have not finalised the (token) plan yet," he said.

Marca cited sources in saying the next upgrade is already on the test benches. (GMM)