Honda confident over major Aston Martin upgrade for Dutch Grand Prix

The Adrian Newey-led squad already made a giant leap last time out in Hungary when the legendary engineer delivered a chassis update which cut around two seconds of lap time from their deficit to the race leaders.

Aston started the season in disarray as the worst team along with newcomers Cadillac, but their performance at the Hungaroring struck fear into their rivals.

Next up is an engine upgrade in Zandvoort for Aston, and the man in charge of delivering it, Honda’s chief engineer Shintaro Orihara, isn’t dampening expectations.

In a press release ahead of the event, he commented: “The Dutch Grand Prix is ​​a significant milestone for Honda, as it's here that we're introducing our new power unit specification.

He added: "Zandvoort is a sprint weekend, which means we'll only have one free practice session.

Aston and Newey held off on rolling out minor upgrades, instead producing one bulk change for Hungary with startling results.

Honda are also doing the same, delivering not just one power unit modification, but a series of changes to improve performance in the Netherlands.

Orihara earlier detailed: “We focus on improving engine performance to make combustion faster. So it's kind of a secret, but I can disclose a little bit…

All of this will come as music to the ears of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso who was facing another year of uncompetitive pain.

Yet he was never in doubt, as he explained in Hungary.

"I think I have a pretty clear picture of the team, that we will fix all the problems,” he said.