OCTOBER 9, 2005

A lot of coincidences

In recent days there have been lots of complicated stories circulating in F1 circles, notably about the second Honda team but also about other potential newcomers in the sport.

In recent days there have been lots of complicated stories circulating in F1 circles, notably about the second Honda team but also about other potential newcomers in the sport. These have included Coca-Cola and the Emirates airline.

Sorting fact from fiction is not easy but it is worth noting the following. The name of Aguri Suzuki keeps popping up in relation to the Honda team. In recent years Suzuki has been running a series of teams as part of his ARTA project to promote Japanese drivers. Suzuki currently has teams running in the Indy Racing League (with Honda), the Japanese GT Championship (with Honda) and Formula Dream (with Honda). The NSX team in Japanese GT racing is entered by Team Honda Racing, the cars are prepared by Dome and features drivers Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman. It is sponsored by Autobacs, Honda, Mobil and Coca-Cola and runs on Bridgestone tyres.

The word on the street is that is the team has already offered drives to Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson.

It is also worth noting, incidentally, that longtime Suzuki sponsor Toshiba, an affiliate of the giant Mitsui group, has recently returned to profit and has a stated policy of expanding internationally as demand grows for its latest memory chips and its digital consumer products.

The micro-chip industry is currently all the rage in F1 circles with moves from AMD and Intel.