Honda test driver Christian Klien has set his sights on Rubens Barrichello’s race seat for the 2008 season.
The Austrian, who formerly raced for Milton Keynes-based Jaguar and Red Bull, notes that veteran Barrichello’s contract with the Japanese giant is set to expire.
“It is a possibility, but nothing is guaranteed,” Klien is quoted as saying by the news agency APA.
Klien, however, said returning to the grand prix grid is “100 per cent my goal”.
“With Honda is would be a logical step,” he added, “because I could integrate myself easily after a year as test driver.”
Klien acknowledged, however, that Brackley based Honda is far from its goal of winning grands prix with the uncompetitive RA107 car.
“Our biggest problem is the aero,” he explained. “The calibration of our wind tunnel was incorrect — the data we collected did not correlate with the data obtained on the track.
“It has set us back quite a lot and it will not now be easy to catch up.”
In the Barcelona paddock on Thursday morning, meanwhile, it emerged that Honda will almost certainly not use the radical ‘elephant ears’ nose solution that was tested last week in Spain.