Motorsport.com revealed earlier this month that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that one way to help Honda and Renault close the gap on their rivals would be to prevent Mercedes and Ferrari from developing their engines any further once they hit a certain horsepower level.

While such a radical idea would help Honda make faster progress in its bid to move up the grid, its motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai has made it clear that he is not interested in rivals being handicapped in this way.

"This is a strange idea," he told Motorsport.com about the concept of a power cap.

"It is not Formula 1. I hope no cap is the right way."

Reward must come from effort

Honda is open to the fact that part of its motivation for being involved in F1 is because of the engineering challenge it offers.

That is why Arai is adamant that only by making genuine progress should Honda be rewarded with better results. That is why he does not want the rules changed.

"It [performing better] should not be because of [new] regulations – it should be because of our own effort," he said.

"The target is very clear: to exceed Mercedes. They will move to another level with more power, so we have to chase them and go beyond them.

"That is competition and that is actually Formula 1. It is very exciting and challenging: I wish we can catch up and exceed soon."

Season progress

When asked if he believed that Honda could still make good progress against Mercedes in 2015, he said: "Yes, yes, yes. Still they are very strong so we need time, but the target is not changed.

"[They are] strong people, but we have to beat them."