Why the secrecy at Honda?
By Phil Huff - February 8 2007

Marco Andretti spent yesterday running around Jerez in a Honda Racing F1 RA106, alongside Jenson Button, and he'll be doing the same again today, but Honda aren't telling anyone.

The news that he would be testing was revealed late on Friday evening, long after many of the mainstream news outlets would have closed for the weekend and, as expected, there was little coverage. Even here at RealHondaF1.com, we decided not to run the story until Monday morning, as few people would have seen it over the weekend.

There's plenty of photographs available of the test, where both Marco's father, Michael, and his grand-father, world champion Mario, are present, and unofficial timing is widespread, showing that Andretti was a reasonable 1.4 seconds off the pace of Jenson Button in the new RA107.

Unlike Andretti's first test in Jerez, this is no publicity stunt. This weeks test is a serious effort to develop the driver and ready him for an eventual move to F1. The fact he's in the same car at the same circuit makes that clear.

However, unlike every other test day I can remember, Honda aren't releasing any details, nor any driver comments - although the driver comments are almost invariably re-written by the PR team.

RealHondaF1.com have learned that Marco is a serious consideration for a racing seat in the not too distant future, with a likely berth being made available in 2009 following a year of testing and development in 2008, although even that schedule could be brought forward a year if necessary.

Honda are investing a lot of money in the future of Marco, and we can only assume that, while they check to see if their continued investment will be wise, they're trying all they can to keep the spotlight off the 19 year old IRL driver.

Regardless, we'll make sure there's full details on Andretti's test after it finishes this evening, with times and photo's. Please, do come back to check it out.

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