With Honda set to return to F1 in '15 as engine supplier to McLaren, a story "is doing the rounds claiming that the Japanese giant wants to buy into the Woking company," according to Chris Balfe of PIT PASS. Honda's last foray into F1 "ultimately ended in pain," withdrawing without warning at the end of '08 even though "all was in place for the subsequent buyers to take the 2009 title with seeming ease." As for buying into McLaren however, such a move "would be far from easy and the decision would not rest with the Japanese giant." It is understood that "there is an agreement" between the three owners of McLaren -- Ron Dennis, Mansour Ojjeh's Techniques d'Avant Garde Group and the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, which is wholly owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain -- that "any shift in equity would have to be with the agreement of all three parties." Furthermore, according to a source close to the team, should one party wish to sell its shares, or a proportion of them, "they would first have to be offered to the other two shareholders" (PIT PASS, 5/28).
