They'll fund the team til March. If a buyer's not found by then, the team will be shut down. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72322 There's a lot of reprecussions to this decision.
I'm surprised anyone can run a team in F1 anymore with budgets upwards of 400 million. There has to be a breaking point when you just have to say it's too much and Honda has reached that point. If you ask me they are very smart for getting out.
RIP Ashes to ashes ; Richards to Richards... Many people are talking about the end of F1 and so on...It might only be the end of a particular era of the sport ; it might be the end of the automobile marque era of the series that started in the 90's.
There have been rumours about the PSA group (Peugeot-Citroën) buying the Honda team. Like the president of Peugeot Sport, there is no point for them doing so amidst such a crisis. PSA has had to close down plants, fire people and run some other plants (the one in Rennes for example) on idle mode. http://www.crash.net/motorsport/f1/news/172742-0/peugeot__honda_f1_rumours_are_'totally_false'.html So, where's the truth ? It's certain that there's a bargain effect and provided the FIA cost cutting measures are efficient, it might actually be interesting to buy Honda. If you have cash... I read that Renault saw their notoriety rise from 3% to 15% in India due to their involvement in F1. So, yeah, it is still very efficient in terms of global branding. Of course, you have to cope with the cost but you also have to succeed to some point. *** On other news which are somewhat related to the matter. http://www.crash.net/news_view.asp?id=172729&pid=0&cid=4&news=n "What's wrong with the Japanese manufacturers ?"
I've read a paper stating that one of the main reasons of Honda's departure beside the credit crunch was indeed the ultimate outcome of the internal war between the Japanese staff and the British team at Brackley.
Good question. Here's a list of pullouts I can think of. Ducati-British Superbike American Honda-American Superbike (they'll still help privateers) A couple rumors yesterday Honda may pull out of MotoGP in spite of their CEO saying they'd remain. Suzuki-World Rally Subaru-World Rally Super Aguri-Formula 1 Honda-Formula 1 Audi-American Le Mans and Le Mans Endurance (Europe) Series Porsche-American Le Mans (not so much a pullout as much as a 1-year furlough) Dodge-NASCAR Trucks Ford-NASCAR Trucks (they'll still help privateers) With the company's state, I can't see Dodge continuing in NASCAR come the start of the season. I think the Corvette ALMS program isn't safe. Renault's boss Ghosn notoriously hates racing and you can see them getting out there. On a side note, as I head to speedtv.com this morning, I see this headline: "Acura NSX Canceled" I think Honda is in far worse shape than they are letting on. Also, a Swiss daily is reporting F1 teams may be "invited" to run a third car. I'll support that if it means allowing local wildcards to run.
Mitsubishi quits the Dakar Rally ! http://eurosport.yahoo.com/04022009/58/dakar-2009-mitsubishi-pull-dakar-rally.html The Japanese manufacturers are in the ropes...
I could have posted it in the F1 thread but since there's only a dedicated one to the issue... Many rumours are now stating that the Honda race will run in 2009 with Ross Brawn at its helm. Honda (the firm) is finding out that keeping the staff is less costly than firing them...At least for this year, I guess. Maybe, it's some sort of 'ghost mode' before it gets better or they simply want to give it a life line in order to help its buy out while helping their current finances. Anyway, if true...Thanks Honda ! Button and Bruno Senna should get the drive. Now, I wonder what will be the name of this team.