Honda’s sporting director Gil de Ferran at the weekend was a surprise visitor to this season’s opening round of the American IRL open wheel category in Miami.
The 39-year-old Brazilian is a former winner of the series’ fabled Indianapolis 500, and he also took time out to meet with his old Penske colleagues, but he admitted that Honda formula one bosses are still “looking at” young Indycar talent Marco Andretti.
Andretti, 19, recently tested Honda’s single seater on more than one occasion, and has been tipped for a one-off Friday seat at the US grand prix later this year.
“It was a last minute decision to come here,” de Ferran, who has been based in England since commencing his role in formula one, told the official website of the IRL.
De Ferran insisted that he is simply holidaying in America prior to the second round of the grand prix season, but admitted: “We would be remiss if we weren’t looking at promising talent from around the world.
“We would not be doing our job if we weren’t paying attention to who is coming up.”
