During the winter break, plenty of optimism came out of the Honda and Red Bull factories, but they've realised the gap between Mercedes is bigger than they had anticipated.

Honda picked up their first podium since they returned to the sport with Max Verstappen's P3 in Australia. They managed to back it up and record a second in Spain.

Verstappen was fighting for the race win in Monaco but couldn't pass Hamilton and was further hampered with a five-second penalty. Moving on to a track which puts more demand on the engine this weekend, Toyoharu Tanabe says more upgrades are needed before they can challenge on these types of circuits.

“The gap with Mercedes is still very big. Even bigger than previously thought and of course I am not happy with that. Fortunately, we can still compete in some races, but to really narrow the gap, we still need many upgrades," Tanabe told De Telegraaf.

However, the reliability of the Honda engine is much improved. Something which was never solved during their time with McLaren.

“During those years at McLaren, we also learned from the negative moments. It's all about learning and that's how our relationship with Red Bull gets better. Ultimately we want to win the championship together," he concluded.

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