No ’raw power’ boost in Canada - Alonso

Canada could be a blip in McLaren’s recent run of progress.

Having scored the first points of 2015 in Monaco, Honda headed to Montreal after trading in some performance ’tokens’ to upgrade its engine for the first time.

"We have used two tokens of the nine available," Fernando Alonso was quoted on Thursday by Spain’s El Confidencial, "but the truth is that it is more an issue of reliability and efficiency than raw power."

The Spaniard said the Canada upgrade should help to correct a recurring problem.

But he is still expecting the long straights of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to trouble the McLaren-Honda package.

McLaren is more looking forward to Austria, where Auto Motor und Sport says Honda is hoping to extract the true performance potential from the new ’token’ upgrade.

Not only that, the team is preparing a major aerodynamic upgrade for the race at the Red Bull Ring, featuring a ’short nose’ as the centrepiece.

The German report, however, said the new nose failed the FIA crash test at the first attempt.

"What is important," Alonso said in Canada, "is that we continue to improve and ensure that problems as happened in the last few races do not happen again.

"2015 is for us something of a test season — we want to be capable of winning in 2016," he insisted.