Any assumption that Formula 1's major teams would largely remain immune from the global financial crisis was shattered on Friday by the news that Honda, one of the grid's biggest and best-funded squads, was quitting with immediate effect.

The decision has put hundreds of jobs at the Brackley team on the line amid the backdrop of a shrinking F1 grid and job losses across all industries worldwide.

In his latest analysis piece for itv.com/f1, James Allen highlights the human aspect of Honda's shock move and pays tribute to a hugely talented, thoroughly determined, F1 team.


Saturday’s papers are full of the story of Honda's withdrawal from F1 and the efforts to sell the team and save some of the 670 jobs at Brackley.

It's just a number, like the figure Woolworths or Citibank are shedding.

But, as Jenson Button highlighted in his statement yesterday, there are real people behind these numbers, people he feels very close to.


The harsh reality

Although this is a disaster for Button's career, he has a huge amount of money in the bank and will be alright. The same is true of Ross Brawn.

But the rest of the team are not so lucky.

Even if the sale is successful the team will be streamlined and probably only about a third of them will keep their posts.

The rest will be out looking for highly specialised work in a hostile economic climate.

This is a team which has been put together over the last nine years, based on the BAR team.

The front men you know; Ross Brawn needs no introduction and has only been with the team 12 months.

Nick Fry has been with the team since the David Richards days and is one of the most affable people in the pit lane.

But he's also Teflon-coated and very determined.

He has got his way many times over the years in the highly political atmosphere of Honda, against the odds.

You can blame him for Honda not hitting the heights in F1, because ultimately he is in charge of putting the right people in the key places, but the technical people have to shoulder the blame for failing to deliver.

I always thought that there was plenty of talent in this team; it just needed strong technical leadership and some consistency.

Geoff Willis offered it when he was in charge in the BAR days, but it's been lacking since then, until the arrival of Brawn.

Honda's unsung heroes

One of the first BAR employees was Ron Meadows, who is now the sporting director and a real racer.

Ron is a great character, one of those salt of the earth types, like Davey Ryan, who has a similar role at McLaren.

These guys have seen it all, know all the ruses and specialise in thinking around corners, spotting cheats, thinking of ways to take advantage of whatever situations may arise.

Gary Savage, who is responsible for new car development, is an intense, passionate racer. He has been with the team many years.

Andrew Shovlin, Jenson's race engineer is a terrific bloke. I'll never forget the sheer, unbridled joy on his face when they won in Budapest two years ago.

Jock Clear you hear from regularly on the team radio, talking to Takuma Sato and more recently Rubens Barrichello.

Jock is a real competitor; he was Jacques Villeneuve's engineer at Williams in 1997 and took immense pleasure in beating Schumacher that year. He's a great communicator and the BBC could do worse than to make use of his racer's insights.


Loyal foot soldiers

And then there are the mechanics on the shop floor, who are among the nicest bunch in the pit lane.

I remember a few years ago when I was the pit reporter for ITV, we did an item on refuelling.

BAR, as it then was, offered to let us muck about with the fuel rig, change the tyres and so on during their pit stop practice. There was a lot of fun, lots of mickey-taking and we ended up with a great piece.

I also feel for Will Stevens who thought he'd hit the jackpot when he signed a driver development deal with Honda, along the lines of what McLaren did with Lewis Hamilton, which would bring him all the way to F1.

He will take his first steps in cars next season, but the road ahead is not as clear without Honda's backing.

And spare a thought for the engineer, who will remain nameless, who was headhunted by Honda recently with the promise of a big pay rise and who is currently serving his notice at another team, at the end of which he will now have no job to go to.

Like all the manufacturers, Honda has made life difficult for the independent teams in the last few years, by poaching their best staff.

If this is the beginning of the end of the manufacturer era, or at least of the era in which mega bucks budgets skew the market place and if Max Mosley's cost cutting proposals give the independents a chance to compete again, then maybe this kind of thing will not happen so much.

Let's hope so, because behind every swish of a CEO's red pen, there are real people.

James Allen
source[www.itv-f1.com]

 

Great post thnx

 

Man, this really puts things in perspective now that it's certain Honda is leaving. Hopefully David Richards can come through to save the day.

 

yes, i think prodrive should take over. i also believe the rules regarding customer cars will be reviewed and likely dropped. with the threat of manufacturers pulling out it is logical to assume customer cars will be back. privateer teams need to play a bigger role in F1, at the very least to help spread the costs out to multiple teams versus a single one.

 

IMO opinion this does herald a new era of privateers taking over where the manufacturers left off.... At the current rate the only manufacturer that I see staying in for the long haul is Ferrari since it isn't only a marketing exercise but the Lion's share of Ferrari's R&D budget is F1 racing