Honda is looking at the possibility of taking a different approach with its power unit in 2017 as development restrictions are lifted.

Since returning to F1 at the start of the 2015 season, Honda has lagged behind the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of power unit performance. Any progress has been limited by restrictions on power unit development, with teams having a set amount of tokens to spend on changes.

Honda’s head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa has previously claimed the Japanese manufacturer could be on a par with Ferrari this season without the restrictions, and with the token system being scrapped for 2017 he told F1i a number of different approaches are now being analysed.

“This is the biggest management issue, which development we will focus on,” Hasegawa said. “Because there are no limits we are currently researching ideas and concepts of the internal combustion, so it is completely different. But we have not decided yet what direction or what concept we will introduce. This is the researching stage.”

When it was put to Hasegawa the power unit architecture could be very different next season, he replied: “It is possible to be different but we haven’t decided yet.”

And Hasegawa says development on the 2016 power unit is continuing but is yet to yield an obvious upgrade after a new turbo was introduced in Canada.

“Of course we are always trying to search for another update. We are not ready to tell but sooner or later we will look to introduce another update for the engine. On the dyno it is so so.”

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