• McLaren

Honda feels 'ready to race' - Arai

Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai says Honda feels ready to go racing in Melbourne despite its troublesome start to life as McLaren's engine supplier.

McLaren completed just 380 laps over the winter, with numerous issues hampering the team over the 12 days in Jerez and Barcelona. Honda's engine was homologated on February 28 and the onus is now on the Japanese manufacturer to get the power unit running reliably in time for the Australian Grand Prix on March 15.

In Barcelona, Arai told the media he felt confident ahead of Melbourne despite the slow start to 2015.

"On the power unit everything is working well," Arai said. "The system itself is very good and ready to race … I still have big ambitions. We are already fixed at hardware and software and have confirmed our final data for Melbourne. I think there is no problem."

Even though Honda's engine has been homologated Arai admitted the manufacturer still does not know how many tokens it will receive in 2015 - which is determined by the average number of tokens unused by Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari.

"Not yet," Arai said about McLaren-Honda's token allotment on Saturday. "Please give me the tokens! We already homologated but other PU manufacturers I don't know how many tokens they already used. Maybe just before Melbourne or after Melbourne we will know what tokens we can use during the season.

"We have prepared lots of [engine upgrades]. But which is more effective or not for the future is not determined yet. We want to be careful to get the win so it depends on other power unit suppliers. We can't decide yet."

During the final test in Barcelona Honda and the other three manufacturers were seen meeting together in the Mercedes motorhome. Arai says 2017 engines were up for discussion but confirmed nothing has been agreed at this stage.

"We had a meeting with other PU manufacturers regarding the 2017 engine specification target. We just discussed and exchanged information. The manufacturers are not so different [in opinion]. We need it to be attractive, save the cost and think about customers - so not so different. It was just a discussion about the future, there is no agreement or decision-making yet."

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