Brendon Hartley has said that there is no sign of the sort of three-year horror that McLaren endured with Honda so far in 2018.

With McLaren and Honda divorcing, the Japanese supplier has now switched to Toro Rosso, and everything so far is apparently hunky dory.

Team boss Franz Tost told Speed Week: "First of all, Honda was not as bad as everyone said last year.

"On top of that, they worked very hard over the winter."

New Zealand driver Hartley agrees, telling El Mundo Deportivo: "Everything has been perfect.

"We're very happy to have Honda's support.

"Performance has been very good so far. We are very optimistic about the engine and the reliability.

"There are still some updates on the way, but above all we are focused on reliability and until now everything is fine."

In fact, it is McLaren - having switched to Renault - that has struggled so far for mileage in Barcelona.

Hartley said: "The engine we have is better than the one we had from Renault last year.

"Being the only team getting engines straight from a manufacturer is a great opportunity for Toro Rosso."

Finally, Hartley - a two-time world sports car champion - was asked about Fernando Alonso's foray into the world of Le Mans.

"I think he has a great chance to win," he said.

"Although to tell you the truth, there are several LMP1 teams now and they're all growing very quickly, so everything could be very close."

The 2018 F1 championship gets underway in Melbourne later this month.