Honda pulls out of Formula One
Eurosport - Fri, 05 Dec 16:57:00 2008
Honda Motor Co has announced that it is pulling out of Formula One motor racing, although next year's Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit will still go ahead as planned.
Amid slumping car sales triggered by the worldwide downturn, Honda are no longer willing to bankroll the Formula One team and its estimated annual budget of $500 million.
Honda Motor Co Chief Executive Takeo Fukui told said a return to the sport could take time, and that there were no plans to continue as an engine supplier.
"This difficult decision was taken recently and was made in light of the quickly deteriorating operating environment facing the global auto industry," Fukui said.
"Honda must protect its core business activities and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economics around the globe continue to mount.
"We will enter into consultation with associates of Honda Racing F1 and its engine supplier Honda Racing Development regarding the future of the two companies. This will include offering the team for sale."
Fukui, who told Reuters this year that he would "spend a trillion yen" if he could to make Honda a Formula One winner, said there would be no speedy return to the sport.
"At this stage we have no plans to return to F1. We have no plans to supply engines to other teams," he said. "We do not want to be half in and half out of the sport."
Honda would in any case have little time to find a buyer with the 2009 season starting in Australia on March 29.
"We would love to be able to continue in Formula One but we're simply not able to in the current financial climate," Fukui said.
"At testing in Barcelona last month we were still positive about racing in F1 next season.
"But we have to use our resources sensibly. As far as potential buyers go, our criterion would be that they continue to employ the hundreds of engineers who work for the Honda team."
Honda, like all of its rivals suffering from a sharp fall in global car sales, saw its sales in the United States, its biggest market, slump 32 percent last month.
"Pulling out of F1 will have a big impact in terms of cutting overall costs," said Fukui. "The most important thing for Honda is to see where we are in the next three to five years."
With Formula One's power-brokers desperately seeking cost-cutting measures to ensure its own survival, Honda's departure will have serious implications for the glamour sport.
It also leaves Britain's Jenson Button without a drive for 2009, although some teams have yet to confirm their lineups.
Brazilian Bruno Senna, the 25-year-old nephew of the late triple world champion Ayrton, had also been tipped to take the place of compatriot Rubens Barrichello at Honda next season.
Honda's exit leaves the multi-billion dollar sport facing a depleted grid of 18 cars if no buyer can be found in the extremely tight time-frame available.
It will also prompt fears that other major manufacturers, with their factory production suspended and thousands of staff laid off, could follow Honda's example.
Honda and Toyota Motor Corp have been the big spenders in Formula One in recent years.
Ross Brawn, the former Ferrari technical director who won multiple world championships with Michael Schumacher, was hired to run the Honda team at the end of last year.
Despite its huge resources, Honda had a dismal 2008 season and was pinning its hopes on next year's new rules levelling the playing field.
Button, a winner for Honda in Hungary in 2006, scored just three points and Barrichello took 11. The team finished ninth overall.
Honda's best finish in the constructors' championship was fourth, in 1967 and 2006, although they powered McLaren and Williams to a string of titles in the 1980s and 1990s.
The last team to leave Formula One was Honda-backed Super Aguri, the tail-enders who folded for financial reasons in April.
The sport's governing body said on Friday that Cosworth would provide Formula One teams with a low-cost engine option from 2010.
FIA president Max Mosley said the body was in exclusive negotiations with Cosworth, Xtrac and Ricardo Transmissions (XR) to provide a complete powertrain (engine and gearbox).
"We can get the cost down from the current £200 million ($293.4 million) plus [per team] down to about £30 million at which point the income from television and the income from sponsors covers it and you don't need these huge subsidies from the car industry," Mosley said.
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Comment 199 - 218 of 218
which is better? The screaming sound of a V10 or the rantings of bitter ferrari supporters after their man failed to win the F1 title?
mclaren are cheats along with hamilton No 1 will ever take them too seriosly, they tarnish the name of F1 un repairable now my hoes THE NAME OF F1 TOO TARNISHED it is a joke...
hello my little f1 bum chums it marion here from peru.
mr hamiltons son say he stay with mclaren men for life. that nice for him but what do mclaren men say? you see mclaren is now german owned. the parent company is the mercedes benz which is the german. the engine is the german engine. everything about the team is the german. mr hamiltons son now the swiss gentleman he eat much cheese and sings in the morning at mountains. mr hamiltons father is also now the swiss man. in fact there nothing british about this team at all. even the man who tidy up the garage after the race has moved to switzerland with his mother. switzerland is owned by the german. my friends the whole team is GERMAN - and guess what - so is mr glock. now you see why the time stand still for mr glock on the last lap. like he in the time warp. not even the people abducted by the alien lose the amount of time he lost on that last lap. IT IS A DISGRACE!!!
So that's both Chris T and Bill Mac who've been removed, I wonder if it'll be mine turn next?
Amazing what have I done?
Bill's gone!
Excellent!
We should thank mouron and stivsf1 for their existence - who else could we all take the piss out of they weren't around? It's a new "sport" for F1 fans until March at the very least.
LOL
CT is me.
No.
I used to, but it never made any difference. So now someone does it to me - although the only one I abuse is Stivsf1. And that's just a normal natural reaction.
Zapped again guys!
Bill Mac: I find arguing with myself is probably more constructive than arguing with the likes of JBolan, mouronroute and stivsf1. At least I can for a coherent sentence and support my argument with fact. It is probably also difficult for me to run away from the argument like they do so a conclusion should eventually be reached.
F1 IS ABOUT TEAMS AND ENGINE BUILDERS..ITS WRONG TO START CHANGING REGULATIONS AND RULES JUST BECAUSE..SO HONDA PULLING OUT YES IS SAD , BUT THEN AGAIN IF THEY CANNOT MAKE THEIR CHASSIS AND ENGINE A BETTER COMBINATION, THEN BYE BYE HONDA, AND LETS GET SOMEONE NEW AND EXICTED ABOUT WHAT F1 IS.AND WHY NOT HAVE 2 FORMULAS IN ONE?
Yer Bill, just what I was thinking of.. those runways. Boy, Roger Penske did the biz then, didn't he?
Who's a weirdo CT? Not me I trust, 'fraid it might mean BANDITS AT TWELVE'O'CLOCK if so!
Pills? Not likely.. it's tea and crumpet (sorry Max!) for me.
TALLY HO!
I agree that F1 is not that cool in the US and that the Indy GP was more than just a bad joke! As much as I would like to see F1 in the US I feel that the European, Middle and Far East is a far better market place for F1 right now and that Bernie is right to concentrate there. Motor racing is all about money, from top to bottom. Bernie has always been aware of this, including his own, but not exclusively his own! He has to produce what F1 as a whole expect from him and I think he has more or less achieved this. The situation has been quite stable until recently, but now is the time to make changes in order to survive. Chasing the Yankee Dollar has been replaced by chasing the Ying Ton Yen. Give it a few years and it will all come back again to Silverstone, Reims and Watkins Glenn.
PS: I read a post last night suggesting that by saving money on R&D they could afford to widen the tracks, thereby facilitating more overtaking. Could someone please explain about racing lines, I'm losing the will to live here!
OVER AND OUT!
Hi Bill, Ginger and most at F1 Squadron..
Where was Biggles when the Jerry won everything for years in his red 'flying' machine? We could have done with Biggles Hamilton then! Guess he would have needed Rolls Royce engines though.
No problems Scottish C, last night before I went to the pub there was a comment from him, this morning it was apparently from you. And just so you know, ScottishC is also going to look out for mouronroute pretending to be you.
c.bannister508: Regarding Honda's loss to F1 and the US market, I doubt it'll have much of an effect over there, not with the amount of time Honda have spent in IndyCar.
Was F1 ever very big in the USA? Canada, probably. But the US? I'm also a bit sus about the 'Win on Sunday, sell on Monday' oblique reference. It may be true but I think 'Lapped on Sunday, scrapped on Monday' is more to the point and perhaps why Honda are pulling out, maybe! Corporations like Honda will now be looking at where they can save serious money. To a brand like Honda that is simply under performing in F1, pulling out is probably the best thing they can do. It may even help their sales in the US. So, I'm not convinced that the loss of the US GP is relevant. If PC Plod has a view on this I would be interested. eg: Where do Honda position themselves in the US market and how related to their sales is F1?
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