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    Honda to pull out of F1



    http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?T...Allen&id=44706

    James Allen on Honda's F1 future

    Thursday, 04 December 2008 20:36

    Honda will announce tomorrow 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.

    #2
    oh no!!

    citr group buy lol

    Comment


      #3
      I'll chip in!!

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        #4
        Lol there goes the advertising campaign that honda was using to sell there cars.

        Maybe it has something to do with the world-wide Euro/TSX pinging engine issue. They can't get this mass produced engine right, probably can't get the F1 engines right either.
        /Oo ___H___ oO\
        |=_/_______\_=|

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          #5
          Interesting... has any new information been posted on any sites to confirm there withdrawal?

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            #6
            http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...-12428,00.html

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              #7
              its official
              Honda is no longer part of the 2009 grid
              http://news.smh.com.au/world/honda-t...1205-6s9q.html

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                #8
                ah poo!!
                won't be wearing my Honda shirt to the F1 next year no more!!
                Last edited by tofu; 05-12-08, 03:54 PM.

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                  #9
                  wtf!!!

                  dey had gud car during testing at barca and i think had the best kinetic recovery system as well... plus set to sign bruno senna..

                  cmon sum billionaire out there!!!
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                    #10
                    even if somebody buys the team, it wont be a Honda team anymore
                    Honda aren't even supplying the engines anymore
                    they've completely pulled the plug on their F1 program
                    hmmm I wonder if Toyota are next...

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by lukits01 View Post
                      even if somebody buys the team, it wont be a Honda team anymore
                      Honda aren't even supplying the engines anymore
                      they've completely pulled the plug on their F1 program
                      hmmm I wonder if Toyota are next...
                      What's interesting is that Honda and Toyota are far larger than Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari when it comes to mainstream market sales so it goes to show how the downturn in the market affects different manufacturers.

                      More @ Planet F1

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                        #12
                        yeh but but honda were putting in s#!tloads more cash than anyone else and still couldn't get the results!
                        FOR SALE: Wind tunnel, hardly used, works well, cost millions, make an offer!
                        02 Indy Yellow s2000::::::04 Arctic Blue Pearl DC5R::::::05 White B2600::::::10 Ibis White Q5

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by gunpoons View Post
                          yeh but but honda were putting in s#!tloads more cash than anyone else and still couldn't get the results!
                          FOR SALE: Wind tunnel, hardly used, works well, cost millions, make an offer!
                          There are rumours Toyota's budget is 3 times that of Honda.

                          A tenth of a second equates to $10,000,000 USD spent in development in F1. Honda were over 2 seconds slower than the leading teams. That cost does not include the day to day running of the team. The costs are out of control and something needs to be done to control it before the sport is gone forever.

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                            #14
                            Dont get me wrong i'm gunna miss having an F1 team to support and totally agree that the cash spent on F1 is stuppid!! there is no way that any team can get realistic returns on that type of expenditure. This has been years in the making and honda are not stupid, they are getting out before it all goes antarctic type south!
                            FOLLOW IRL----- CANT LOOSE!!!!
                            02 Indy Yellow s2000::::::04 Arctic Blue Pearl DC5R::::::05 White B2600::::::10 Ibis White Q5

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                              #15
                              So Honda have pulled out of the F1, I would like to see what Honda are going to do with the new "NSX", seeing as the V10 engine was meant to have some F1 "DNA" in it.

                              Originally posted by crashprash View Post
                              wtf!!!

                              dey had gud car during testing at barca and i think had the best kinetic recovery system as well... plus set to sign bruno senna..

                              cmon sum billionaire out there!!!
                              Didn't F1 say that by 2010 they didn't want any "privater" teams? (ie all teams must produce there own chassis and engines.)
                              Last edited by 45SET; 05-12-08, 07:46 PM.

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