Following the apparent conclusion of what became known as Buttongate II, with Jenson Button apparently agreeing to pay a substantial pile of cash to Williams, which he will no doubt pay out of his (reputedly rather large) contract with Honda, Honda finds themselves in a difficult spot with Takuma Sato.
BAR-Honda signed Rubens Barrichello as insurance in case Button did not resolve his dispute with Williams, and had to move there in 2006. Had that happened, Sato would presumably have continued as the #2 driver at Honda. However, with Button now staying, Sato is the odd man out. He has already stated that he will not accept a testing role (and why should he? That never leads to much opportunity - ask Alex Wurtz and Anthony Davidson), and Honda is coming under a lot of pressure from inside Japan to help Sato out. He did nothing wrong, so why penalize him by dropping him now? In passing, it should be noted that Satoru Nakajima was nowhere near quick enough to be in Formula 1, yet Honda quite cheerfully paid for him to drive alongside Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet in F1 teams for which they supplied engines, and apparently demanded that Williams take him for 1988 as a condition for continuing turbo engine supply (a demand that Frank Williams instantly rejected). Sato is no Nakajima - he is very quick, if erratic.
So...this being the Silly Season, the hot rumour is that a new team will appear, to run Sato in 2006. Honda will of course supply engines to that team.
This raises all sorts of pesky practical questions. Like where will a team materialize from in the next 2 months? To stand any chance of being competitive, the team will have to have a chassis ready to test before Christmas. That is a tall order, even if the team could purchase the intellectual property for an existing design. Never mind the more mundane practical matters of staff, engineers, premises, car and spare manufacture, etc. etc.
The only suggestion that makes even a grain of sense is that somehow Dome Racing could put together a Formula 1 program for next season. Dome does have the infrastructure to do that, and they have an impressive track record in most forms of motor sport. However, to assemble an F1 program will be logistically impossible...unless this "mystery team" has already been largely assembled in secret. Like maybe in a Middle Eastern country...