Honda relieved that McLaren partnership is over

Honda chief Yusuke Hasegawa has claimed it is a 'relief' that the Japanese manufacturers' troubled relationship with McLaren is now over, but looked forward to the new connection with Toro Rosso, insisting that it was important in Formula One to experience to ideas.

Problems with reliability and power became a major issue between McLaren and Honda, with the former becoming increasingly frustrated at not challenging for more podiums.

The three-year deal was mutually terminated after the 2017 season, with McLaren set to use Renault engines and Honda set to provide parts for Toro Rosso.

Hasegawa is relieved the partnership is over, but did claim it was a good working relationship with McLaren.

"Relief, yes. It is good to concentrate on next season," said the Honda boss.

"You might not believe us but I don't think we (McLaren-Honda) have a human issue. We have a very good relationship with McLaren.

"I don't feel anything like it's [a] fresh [start], it's just up to us to concentrate now on making our engine better.

"So from that point of view it is no different, we still have a huge pressure from the inside and the outside. I'm pretty confident to work with Toro Rosso as well and it is exciting.

"It is a new challenge and having more information and creating new relationships with a different group is very exciting. But as I've always mentioned we have no plan to modify the engine concept so from that point of view we've already started next year's engine development.

"So it's not a big difference actually for our development group."

With McLaren now set to use Renault engines, Honda's reputation isn't what Hasegawa would like after some disappointing seasons, but was confident they could rebuild it to gain more custom in the future.

"Of course it's unfortunate they decided to choose a different engine for next year," he told Motorsport.com.

"But this is part of the strategy for them and we need to respect that and we need to be a strong manufacturer so that they and other teams want to choose us in the future."

After providing this interview to Motorsport, it was announced that Hasegawa would be leaving his role as Honda's F1 project boss due to a management restructure.