I have no doubt in my mind that Honda
want to return to the sport, its just a question of whether its really feasible for them. Honda, Renault, BMW and Ford have some special links with F1 and will forever keep leaving and returning.
Honda apparently did take part in the 2013/2014 engine regulation talks along with others such as VAG/Audi.
McLaren may well be planning an engine switch for 2014 but the signs aren't really there yet. I doubt very much Honda will return anytime soon, or at least not in time for 2014, but they will probably return at some point.
Assuming for the moment that Honda want to re-enter the sport and have every intention of doing so, there is a major barrier to entry: the teams already have relationships with current engine suppliers. Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault were all instrumental in deciding the 2014 regulations, and they have close ties to front-running teams. All Honda could hope for is picking up a midfield team and running an engine strong enough to attract attention from the bigger teams - but assuming that they can even coax a team to use their engines, they'll be squabbling with Cosworth and PURE.
This has always been the problem. Nothing new here. It takes one of the big teams to take a gamble and run a different engine in search of an advantage usually before a new engine manufacturer finds success. Otherwise they rely on helping bring a midfielder or backmarker up through the pack.
Honda's previous "return" in 2000 slowly helped turn BAR from backmarker to relative front-runner, not to mention the success of the Mugen-Hondas in the Jordans, Renaults in the 89 Williams, etc.
There have been plenty of manufacturers who never really tasted victory but had a go anyway. It was fun to have teams at the back experimenting with all sorts of engines in the early 90s.
Peugeot and Yamaha's dabbles with F1 were pretty mediocre to terrible but they tried for several years anyway with some decent teams.
The thing with new engine regulations is that it opens the playing field up again. There is huge potential for some people to get it right and some to get it wrong. Cosworth, PURE, Honda, whoever could much more easily jump into the sport in 2014 and strike success than entering now with the engine freeze and the hyper-developed 2006 V8s. This is why people continually link manufacturers in as there is some hope that some of them might try and do just that - strike success while everyone is still getting used to the new regulations.
