Honda still has work still to do to catch Mercedes and Ferrari

Honda F1 boss Toyoharu Tanabe has admitted that the Japanese manufacturer is not yet on the same level of performance as Ferrari and Mercedes.

The Japanese manufacturer joined forces with Red Bull for 2019 and the Milton-Keynes based team says it is happy with the added power compared to Renault power units, but according to Honda themselves, there is still work to be done.

Although results and performances have been promising for Honda with both Red Bull and Toro Rosso reporting gains in power, Tanabe-san admits that the power unit can improve further still.

"So far, we have started this season with a reasonable performance and reasonable results," he said during the team personnel press conference on Friday.

"But reasonable means not fantastic yet and you see clearly you see there is still a big gap between the top runners and us.

"So we really need to push to improve our performance, to compete with our competitors here. But we understand it is not to improve our performance immediately but we'll keep pushing through the year."

When pressed about how far Honda was away from the top teams in F1, Tanabe-san would not reveal the exact number.

"I don't tell you specific number but you see the gap at the track."