Honda Pulls out of F1
#2
12-04-2008, 09:22 PM
Yes. Saw this today. Unbelievable!! Here is a BBC article:
Honda poised to quit Formula One
Honda will quit Formula One on Friday, BBC Sport understands.
The Japanese company hopes to sell its team, which costs £200m a year to run, but is prepared to close the team early in 2009 if no buyer is found.
Sources told BBC Sport the team were "optimistic" they would continue, but an investor had yet been found.
According to the Reuters news agency, team bosses Ross Brawn and Nick Fry fear Honda could close the Brackley-based operation within weeks.
According to a Reuters source, Brawn and Fry told a meeting of the Formula One Teams' Association: "They have a month to find a buyer, otherwise they are closing the team."
Honda appointed Brawn, the man who masterminded seven world titles for Michael Schumacher, as their team principal prior to the start of the 2008 season.
Briton Jenson Button, who drives for the Honda team, will be left unattached for the 2009 season if the team folds, though some places with mid-ranking teams remain.
After recently cutting road vehicle production as a response to the global economic crisis, Honda is expected to make an announcement regarding the team's future early on Friday.
A notoriously expensive sport in which to compete, F1 teams have spent recent months in intensive discussions over cost-cutting measures.
Max Mosley, president of world motorsport governing body the FIA, recently urged teams to find ways to reduce costs.
"Formula One is becoming unsustainable," said Mosley in July.
"The major manufacturers are currently employing up to 1,000 people to put two cars on the grid. This is clearly unacceptable at a time when all these companies are facing tough market conditions."
In October, a deal was reached to reduce costs for smaller teams in 2009 and 2010.
Considered a major player within Formula One, Honda bankrolls more than 800 staff at the team's Northamptonshire base and has the largest budget in the sport.
"I am told that for £1 you can now buy the Honda F1 team," said BBC sports news correspondent Adam Parsons.
BBC Radio 5 Live's F1 commentator, David Croft, said Honda's withdrawal could have profound consequences for the sport.
"This has serious implications for F1, not just because there will be only 18 cars on the grid," said Croft.
"It's the start of the sport as a whole feeling the pinch. Williams are reported to be in financial difficulties, Toyota are trimming down their budget as well.
"Honda are a car company whose sales have dropped by 41% in the last quarter, they're closing their Swindon factory for two months at the start of next year, and obviously feeling the pinch on a global scale."
In November, Honda announced it would build fewer cars in Japan, Europe and the United States to reflect bleak economic prospects in the vehicle manufacturing industry.
Sales of new cars in the UK suffered their biggest monthly drop in 28 years, while carmakers Ford, GM and Chrysler have asked the US Congress for multi-billion dollar loans to guarantee their survival.
The last team to leave Formula One were Honda-backed minnows Super Aguri, which folded for financial reasons in April.
Honda's own F1 team endured a deeply disappointing 2008 season on the track, earning just 14 points, leaving them the lowest of the nine points-scoring teams.
Button found himself ranked 18th in the drivers' list, contributing only three points.
Only four drivers, each without a point to their name, ranked below him. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello earned the remaining 11 points.
Honda initially entered F1 as a constructor in the 1960s, withdrawing at the end of 1968.
The company returned to F1 in the 1980s as an engine supplier and then purchased a stake in the BAR team from British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2004.
Honda bought out BAT in 2005 to form the Honda team for the 2006 season.
While the team finished fourth in the 2006 constructors' championship, they have subsequently struggled to make an impact.
The 2009 Formula One season begins on 29 March, in Australia.
Honda will quit Formula One on Friday, BBC Sport understands.
The Japanese company hopes to sell its team, which costs £200m a year to run, but is prepared to close the team early in 2009 if no buyer is found.
Sources told BBC Sport the team were "optimistic" they would continue, but an investor had yet been found.
According to the Reuters news agency, team bosses Ross Brawn and Nick Fry fear Honda could close the Brackley-based operation within weeks.
According to a Reuters source, Brawn and Fry told a meeting of the Formula One Teams' Association: "They have a month to find a buyer, otherwise they are closing the team."
Honda appointed Brawn, the man who masterminded seven world titles for Michael Schumacher, as their team principal prior to the start of the 2008 season.
Briton Jenson Button, who drives for the Honda team, will be left unattached for the 2009 season if the team folds, though some places with mid-ranking teams remain.
After recently cutting road vehicle production as a response to the global economic crisis, Honda is expected to make an announcement regarding the team's future early on Friday.
A notoriously expensive sport in which to compete, F1 teams have spent recent months in intensive discussions over cost-cutting measures.
Max Mosley, president of world motorsport governing body the FIA, recently urged teams to find ways to reduce costs.
"Formula One is becoming unsustainable," said Mosley in July.
"The major manufacturers are currently employing up to 1,000 people to put two cars on the grid. This is clearly unacceptable at a time when all these companies are facing tough market conditions."
In October, a deal was reached to reduce costs for smaller teams in 2009 and 2010.
Considered a major player within Formula One, Honda bankrolls more than 800 staff at the team's Northamptonshire base and has the largest budget in the sport.
"I am told that for £1 you can now buy the Honda F1 team," said BBC sports news correspondent Adam Parsons.
BBC Radio 5 Live's F1 commentator, David Croft, said Honda's withdrawal could have profound consequences for the sport.
"This has serious implications for F1, not just because there will be only 18 cars on the grid," said Croft.
"It's the start of the sport as a whole feeling the pinch. Williams are reported to be in financial difficulties, Toyota are trimming down their budget as well.
"Honda are a car company whose sales have dropped by 41% in the last quarter, they're closing their Swindon factory for two months at the start of next year, and obviously feeling the pinch on a global scale."
In November, Honda announced it would build fewer cars in Japan, Europe and the United States to reflect bleak economic prospects in the vehicle manufacturing industry.
Sales of new cars in the UK suffered their biggest monthly drop in 28 years, while carmakers Ford, GM and Chrysler have asked the US Congress for multi-billion dollar loans to guarantee their survival.
The last team to leave Formula One were Honda-backed minnows Super Aguri, which folded for financial reasons in April.
Honda's own F1 team endured a deeply disappointing 2008 season on the track, earning just 14 points, leaving them the lowest of the nine points-scoring teams.
Button found himself ranked 18th in the drivers' list, contributing only three points.
Only four drivers, each without a point to their name, ranked below him. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello earned the remaining 11 points.
Honda initially entered F1 as a constructor in the 1960s, withdrawing at the end of 1968.
The company returned to F1 in the 1980s as an engine supplier and then purchased a stake in the BAR team from British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2004.
Honda bought out BAT in 2005 to form the Honda team for the 2006 season.
While the team finished fourth in the 2006 constructors' championship, they have subsequently struggled to make an impact.
The 2009 Formula One season begins on 29 March, in Australia.
#4
12-04-2008, 09:30 PM
Shocking for sure, but makes sense. The amount of $$$ these teams eat up has to be justified, and that is harder and harder to do with a straight face these days. This sucks...I have a feeling they are only the first of several.
#5
12-04-2008, 09:32 PM
you may indeed be right 
i was shocked because there really seemed to be no warning to this...it's one thing if a minnow closes up shop but when it's a major manufacturer it's pretty disconcerting. drastic measures will be coming i am sure...
i was shocked because there really seemed to be no warning to this...it's one thing if a minnow closes up shop but when it's a major manufacturer it's pretty disconcerting. drastic measures will be coming i am sure...
#6
12-04-2008, 09:39 PM
Drastic indeed. Unfortunately I think they will be the NASCAR-esque engine limiting specs, etc. This won't be good for the sport. And I agree, I don't think there was ANY hint of this coming. That's even worse.
#7
12-04-2008, 09:59 PM
Originally Posted by Gobbles
And I agree, I don't think there was ANY hint of this coming. That's even worse.
#9
12-05-2008, 04:55 AM
James Allen on Honda's F1 future
Honda will announce Friday morning that it is withdrawing from Formula 1.
It is putting its team up for sale and will continue to fund the team for three months, but if no buyer is found by March then the team will be closed down.
The team was addressed by team principal Ross Brawn this evening and he explained the situation to the workforce.
As today was a FOTA meeting in Geneva it is likely that the news was broken there and has leaked out from other teams initially.
Honda has its car factories in Japan working part-time shifts, owing to the collapse in the automobile sales market and clearly the management feel that they can no longer justify spending up to £200 million a year on F1, even if cost-cutting measures are in the pipeline.
Too much time has been wasted in agreeing a package of measures as the FIA and Williams management have been warning for months.
The news is a major shock, because Honda is one of the most profitable of the car makers currently engaged in F1.
If they can make this decision, so can the others.
This is a major moment for the sport and I imagine Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley will be ringing around frantically this evening ensuring that the remaining teams are solid.
Toyota are the ones most are nervous about. They may use the withdrawal of their major rival as an excuse to get out, should they feel the conditions demand it.
Mosely is likely to use this difficult situation to reiterate that radical cost-cutting measures need to be taken with immediate effect.
He is entitled to say, "I told you so" and although he'll take no pleasure from it, he will have been proved right.
Honda has a track record of sudden withdrawals, pulling out of Williams in 1987 to switch to McLaren and then withdrawing from F1 altogether in 1992.
Honda took full ownership of the BAR team in 2005 and the highlight of its brief career was Jenson Button's win at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2006.
The Financial Times newspaper recently wrote that the team was the highest spending of the F1 outfits and had got through £147 million in 2007, about £40 million more than McLaren.
They added 100 new staff - taking the total to 667 - and were investing heavily in the Ross Brawn plan for the future.
The news will be a savage blow to Button, who renewed his contract with the team shortly before the Japanese Grand Prix.
With all the top seats filled and on the back of an indifferent season, Button will be feeling nervous about his prospects for 2009.
It is only hearsay at this stage but I understand that it will be confirmed in the next few hours, when Tokyo opens for business.
I understand that the package being put up for sale does not involve the potential new owner running Honda engines but instead involves Ferrari engines, a deal which one imagines Ross Brawn would have put together.
James Allen, F1 | ITV Sport
It is putting its team up for sale and will continue to fund the team for three months, but if no buyer is found by March then the team will be closed down.
The team was addressed by team principal Ross Brawn this evening and he explained the situation to the workforce.
As today was a FOTA meeting in Geneva it is likely that the news was broken there and has leaked out from other teams initially.
Honda has its car factories in Japan working part-time shifts, owing to the collapse in the automobile sales market and clearly the management feel that they can no longer justify spending up to £200 million a year on F1, even if cost-cutting measures are in the pipeline.
Too much time has been wasted in agreeing a package of measures as the FIA and Williams management have been warning for months.
The news is a major shock, because Honda is one of the most profitable of the car makers currently engaged in F1.
If they can make this decision, so can the others.
This is a major moment for the sport and I imagine Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley will be ringing around frantically this evening ensuring that the remaining teams are solid.
Toyota are the ones most are nervous about. They may use the withdrawal of their major rival as an excuse to get out, should they feel the conditions demand it.
Mosely is likely to use this difficult situation to reiterate that radical cost-cutting measures need to be taken with immediate effect.
He is entitled to say, "I told you so" and although he'll take no pleasure from it, he will have been proved right.
Honda has a track record of sudden withdrawals, pulling out of Williams in 1987 to switch to McLaren and then withdrawing from F1 altogether in 1992.
Honda took full ownership of the BAR team in 2005 and the highlight of its brief career was Jenson Button's win at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2006.
The Financial Times newspaper recently wrote that the team was the highest spending of the F1 outfits and had got through £147 million in 2007, about £40 million more than McLaren.
They added 100 new staff - taking the total to 667 - and were investing heavily in the Ross Brawn plan for the future.
The news will be a savage blow to Button, who renewed his contract with the team shortly before the Japanese Grand Prix.
With all the top seats filled and on the back of an indifferent season, Button will be feeling nervous about his prospects for 2009.
It is only hearsay at this stage but I understand that it will be confirmed in the next few hours, when Tokyo opens for business.
I understand that the package being put up for sale does not involve the potential new owner running Honda engines but instead involves Ferrari engines, a deal which one imagines Ross Brawn would have put together.
James Allen, F1 | ITV Sport
