After dropping some Honda bombshells in front of the media at the start of the Formula 1 season, Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey was more on message when he appeared in Friday's FIA press conference at Austin.
But despite a clearly cautious choice of words throughout, Newey gave enough away about both the 'disappointment' of Honda's 2026 progress and the "hope" of what's to come next year.
Honda's ADUO updates - both the internal combustion engine and turbo steps that have been introduced - have fallen short of being able to help Aston Martin fight regularly for points, but equally talk for a while now has been about the focus being on bigger progress in 2027.
There was no denying from Newey though that, from the depths of how bad things were back at the season opener in Melbourne, steps forward had perhaps not been as much as he nor Honda wanted.
Asked by The Race about if things had moved forward as much as Honda had anticipated, Newey - with a wry smile, and after a pause - said: "I think it's fair to say that Honda have probably been a little bit disappointed with how much progress they have managed to make this year.
"But as always, or as is so often the case in that situation, it only strengthens resolve to go forward in the future. The future is obviously the important bit for both companies.
"They are very determined. These things don't change overnight, but they have a lot of good people, a lot of good processes now in place."
Newey could easily have pointed the finger at Honda over the fact things remain difficult for Aston Martin at this stage of the campaign, but he was clearly eager not to rock the boat.
Instead, he said the data was available to work out where the weakness was in the Aston Martin-Honda package.
"[In terms of] relative deficit between chassis and engine...it's probably not for me to say," he said. "I think if people look at the GPS [data], then you can start to get a much better picture from that."
But while telling people where to look for what was happening now, he talked of hope for the future.
"Honda obviously are working hard," he said. "They're a great company, as we all know, capable of great things, as they've proved many times in the past. We are working closely with them, and so [are] hopeful of the future."
Honda looks set to revamp its power unit design for next year as part of a reshuffle of the rules that involves the fuel-flow rate increasing and boost pressure being lifted.
Newey certainly hinted at progress coming out of Honda's Sakura base in Japan about what was being lined up for 2027.
"There's a lot of energy and projects on the way now that perhaps are in their early stages of development, but we see a lot of promise from those," he said.
"It's too early to comment on exactly where the power unit will be at the start of the season and whether then, assuming it's allowed under the PUAC [Power Unit Advisory Committee], there will be a further development for what will be race eight at the end of the first period.”
That latter comment suggests more ADUO steps are in the offing, with Honda's large deficit this year allowing two further homologation upgrade opportunities in 2027 irrespective of how well it starts next season.