Honda has called for Formula One's engine regulations to be relaxed in order to allow it to catch up with the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes.
Honda's return to Formula One as McLaren's engine supplier has not gone to plan, with its V6 hybrid power unit significantly down on power compared to its rivals. Honda joined the sport a year after the introduction of the current regulations and, with much less development time than its rivals, has struggled to produce a competitive energy recovery system to twin with its tightly packaged V6 turbo.
In order to control costs, once a manufacturer starts competing in F1 it can only introduce performance upgrades with the FIA's token system. Although Honda has not spent all of its tokens this year, Arai still feels the current regulations are too restrictive for a manufacturer playing catch-up.
"I think the current regulation is so restricted for the engine manufacturers," he said. "At Honda we are in a new phase and one year behind and it's very difficult to catch up the top teams. So I hope personally that the regulation is more relaxed which would be very useful to help catch up."
Honda currently has an exclusive deal with McLaren, but the team's racing director Eric Boullier said that could be opened up to allow customer teams in future years.
"In the current agreement for an engine manufacturer to enter Formula One there is a possibility to supply other teams and at some stage you have to rebalance against the market," he said. "So when we had the V8 and the frozen engine and more or less all the same [in performance], it was about commercial deals and it was more or less fairly split. Today the two strongest engines on the grid are Mercedes and Ferrari, so it's not surprising that most of the teams want them.
"[Supplying another team] is a question that we have discussed already and we will keep discussing with Honda. At the right time in our partnership, they will be ready to supply another team."