Silverstone, England - Honda became the third team to become touched by Formula 1's "spy" controversy when it confirmed that the two men accused in the affair had approached them looking for jobs.
The British-based team, race winners in 2007 but struggling with just only point so far in 2007, however made it clear that it had not been offered any leaked Ferrari technical information.
"Earlier this year Nigel Stepney, formerly of Scuderia Ferrari, requested a meeting with (Honda team boss) Nick Fry," Honda said in a statement ahead of the British GP.
"Nigel Stepney subsequently met in June of this year with Nick Fry and brought with him Mike Coughlan of McLaren, with a view to investigating job opportunities within the Honda Racing F1 team.
"Honda would like to stress that at no point during this meeting was any confidential information offered or received.
"Nick Fry informed (Ferrari boss) Jean Todt and (McLaren's) Ron Dennis of the meeting and has offered to provide any information required by Ferrari and McLaren."
Ferrari dismissed former technical manager Stepney, a 47-year-old Briton who played an important role in the team's golden period of dominance with seven-times World champion Michael Schumacher, earlier in the week.
Stepney has denied any wrongdoing but he fell out with the team following the departure of technical director and compatriot Ross Brawn at the end of 2006. He accused Ferrari of "dirty tricks" after media allegations of attempted sabotage emerged in June and he had been linked to Honda since February, when he made clear he was open to offers from other teams.
Ferrari has taken legal action against Stepney and a senior McLaren technical employee, widely identified in newspapers as chief designer Coughlan, although still not named by that team, over " theft of technical information".
Championship leader McLaren has assured Ferrari that none of the leaked information had been used in designing their race-winning car.
"Speaking for our company, I'm sure we will be completely vindicated with the passing of time," Dennis told a news conference on Friday
Criticising those who jumped to accuse McLaren, he added: "I doubt there will be many apologies afterwards but the truth will come out."
McLarens being checked
The International Automobile Federation is checking the McLaren cars and is expected to reveal its findings by the end of July.
Dennis said McLaren could show, through their internal company processes, that their car was clean.
"Part of the information we have made available to the FIA is all the details of all the developments in our cars, not only for the period after April 28 but also the preceding months," he said.
"All of the drawings are available for all of those developments and none of those drawings or developments has any trace of other competitors' intellectual property.
"It is extremely easy to track back the influence of any one individual into the development of our racing cars, because everything has a name against it." - Reuters