Can't recall that particular incident, but I do remember that when one of the engineers in the Honda pit at an F1 race (think it was Mexico City-the race they won in the late '60s) who the chief engineer was for their car, they pointed out Mr. Honda to the reporter.

And yeah, while Honda is considered an engineering-led organization, Soichiro Honda was the son of a blacksmith who may very well have not finished highschool. He was an obsessively skilled mechanic and designer, and had famously little regard for college-educated engineers who would make simple mistakes an experienced mechanic would avoid.

That race win in the '60s prompted Lee Iaccoca (then at Ford) to want to source Honda engines for the new Escort small car to be sold in Europe. Henry Ford II quashed that idea, saying "no car with my family's name on it will have a Jap engine!". Too bad.