Honda’s involvement in F1 didn’t provide much return from success point anyways …

Its time for Nick to take dig dip into his pockets and come up with the monies, if he is that serious about racing and F1

Although this must bring into question the future of other teams there are differences between Honda and the other teams.

For the past two years because of the Earth Dream concept the team have not had much sponsorship so while the team still seemed to have a top budget from reports more of it had to come from Honda than normal.

Also the fact that for the last two season the have been down at the bottom of the championship would have made it is easier to pull the plug than if they had a been winning races or had a real chance of a championship in the next few years.

Although Car companies may say F1 is about R&D the money spent can more easily be justified as advertising, and if Honda were spending more than others yet still at the back it shouldn’t have surprised me that they reconsidered their future in F1.

Team F1Fanatic!

Nick Fry said in an interview on GMTV this morning that the team have had 3 serious offers from potential buyers in the past 12 hours.

I don’t doubt that there might be people interested, but actually taking the plunge is different. There was “interest” in Aguri, “interest” in STR which has not manifested itself very much so far.

Someone might buy them, but to run as a customer-type team. I think it highly unlikely someone is going to buy them to run as a manufacturer. And I think they might go through a Jordan-Midland-Spyker-Force India like period of a different buyer every season for a bit.

I hope that if Honda dose indeed pull the plug, someone will jump in and operate the team for next season. That being said, I consider it highly unlikley, but will still hope for the best. Firstly, my thoughts are with the staff and employees who will be affected by this decision- best to them if some or all do find themselves out of work because of this.

I believe linking Toyota and Renault to this may be a bit different, as those teams are well-sponsored and Renault in particular have had recent success and have a top driver in their ranks. Still, at times like this it is the bottom line that makes sense, and it would not entirely suprise me to see one of the other manufacturer-based teams pull out.

The Limit- To be honest, I do believe that M-B, BMW, and Ferrari are doing better than the mainstream automakers. While I have no hard numbers to base this on, wealthy people will always want to upgrade and trade in for a new ride, and I would expect that these carmakers are not in as bad of shape as the ones who seel to mainstreamers such as myself.

Chris- Not to nitpick at a time like this, but with Rubens having come in third at Silverstone, woulden’t the medal have been a bronze?

If you do the “melt-down” scenario, to continue the metaphor, it is difficult to set F1 aside from the general oncoming financial malaise.

You lose some of the car companies, some of the foreign tracks, throw in a pile of advertising money; and suddenly everything is in the retrenchment mode, all parties needing to offload anything not essential to rolling something, anything, onto the grid.

Gee….did we just live through the Golden Age, commercially speaking of course, of Formula One?

Nah, not really, I’m just spinning in place……

I’m sure the guys at the top who are financing Honda’s f1 team wouldnt be that excited about donating valuable resources (in the current financial climate) to produce a net result, which based on this season, would have produced one silver medal.

I’m worried that more will follow. How much longer can a customer team like williams be competitve when they are clearly suffering financial problems? Will Torro Rosso last much longer before Red Bull decide that its not financially viable to have two teams competing in f1?

This is a worrying time for f1. Maybe bernie should start prioritising and look more at cost cutting measures and leave things like the points system alone for the time being.

Andretti a test but even so with testing miles so tightly restricted why should they be giving tests to drivers with who are not strong road circuit drivers to begin with?

Keith, Thanks for pointing to the testing restrictions, a point that was sadly forgotten by many on this forum when beating down Nelson Piquet that he didn’t get enough car time in 2007 season, since “Race drivers used most of the test time”.

Anyways Just to set records straight, Andretti has had lousy seasons after sensational debut in 2006, when his good performances were on some of the road circuits as well.

FYI IRL is not just Oval racing .

And that still leaves the question open, when your backer is Japanese Auto Giant, and a country that has immense F1 following and good Motorsports tradition, What had Fry and Co to offer to Japanese Fans ? Not a Single Japanese Development driver . The conways and rossiters.. the list goes on…

The Super Aguri case is another recent one and Nick’s Role in its demise well documented.

I am definitely not paranoid , but Nick’s role in the entire engagement still remains under cloud. And nobody can deny that.

I have put the same rationale in your article on Cost of One Point, and voiced out, its time for Honda to evaluate their engagment in the Sport.
The way the HondaF1 operations are run, Honda should just limit their involvement as Engine Supplier(Vendor) and then Nick and Brawn drive the team as per “their agenda”

To restate what I have stated, it always looked like “Give me Blank cheque” and let me do things my own way kind of relationship. The circumstantial evidences are too overwhelming to brush it off as Paranoia

They can hardly stand toe to toe with the other FOTA members talking about drastic cost-cutting measures and not mention Honda’s withdrawal, it would completely undermine FOTA’s position against Mosley.

Yep I think that’s it.

Too Good –

Nick has been systematically making this team as “Of the, By the, For the” British.

I think you have an oddly paranoid take on what happened. Honda did give Andretti a test but even so with testing miles so tightly restricted why should they be giving tests to drivers with who are not strong road circuit drivers to begin with? For that matter why should Honda have propped up an ailing B-team that was costing them money? And if Fry was running the team ‘for the British’ why was a Japanese motorbike designer put in charge of aerodynamics?

I don’t claim to have a deep understanding of what’s gone on at Honda over the past few years but your point of view is so vehemently put I think you just have a grudge against them for some reason.

Shuhei Nakamoto is British?

Nick Fry , Ross Brawn, Jenson Button, Ant Davidson,James Rossiter, Mike Conway are they Japanese?

Look at course of events ever since Dave Richards Left and Nick Fry has taken over. This team has been quintessential a british outfit with blank cheque from Japanese Top Management? Nick has been systematically making this team as “Of the, By the, For the” British,

As though there is dearth of Talent in Japan to be brought on board as “Development drivers”. While James Rossiter was pushed across the American Counterparts to Run for AGR racing, was the favor returned by decent test drives to Danica/Marco? Answer is sadly NO. Mr Fry has been Flip-Flopping on it throughout 2008.

Wooing of Barichello through Ferran, and now systematically cornering the Brazilian after similarly shunting off Gil is another story.

Do we have to go through series of events where Aguri Suzuki was running from Pillar to post and getting backers from Magma, Spice Group (India) and Mr. Fry was single handedly blocking all those moves. Most dodgy was Fry Blocking Spice Group and Narain Karthikeyan ” Narain doesn’t fit in Honda culture“.

It was like give us blank cheques and don’t ask for anything in return

I am sure Nick Fry must have pocketed enough Moolah in this engagement, if only he gets it onboard the team can run for another couple of years

Reminds me of the ” One bad Apple making the entire Basket Stinky”

“Finding someone to back the team during these tumultuous times is going to prove difficult and there’s already talk that Bernie Ecclestone may step in to attempt to work out a deal to keep Honda around.”

I wonder, why Nick and Brawn made it known to their FOTA counterparts

Because they can hardly stand toe to toe with the other FOTA members talking about drastic cost-cutting measures and not mention Honda’s withdrawal, it would completely undermine FOTA’s position against Mosely and make all the teams look very silly indeed if Honda wer backing something that was far too late to save them.

Tommy, you clearly do not understand how major companies work, especially those based in other countries.

Mav – its not about “Other countries”. Living in what used to be automobile capital of the world, I am close witness to “how major companies in western world work” as well. And to be honest the amount of uncertainity, lack of communication till the boat is just about to capsize is just the same ( refer the crumbling of Big Banks in recent days)

Coming back to Honda Story, apparently Honda Bosses in Japan have finally realised that the British Management under Nick Fry had systematically taken them for ride, by pushing their own agenda ahead and marginalizing the Tokyo backed “Men” in boardroom politics ( One example that comes to mind is Gil-De-Ferran). I think Honda’s announcement is more to this internal Politiking with Nick Fry and his cronies. Not to mention for carte blanche that Tokyo bosses gave him Nick couldn’t deliver anything worth mentioning in last three years other than the chance win in rain affected Hungary’06.

Relation between Nick Fry and Honda bosses must be like of Fund Manager and Investor in Sinking markets, The Investor finally has lost confidence in Fund Manager’s capability to give them returns.

As much as I would feel bad about Leaving of another team. I always felt it was just matter of time that this was to happen. I wonder, why Nick and Brawn made it known to their FOTA counterparts Is it another last ditch attempt to get some personal benefits by making FOTA bosses make some choices under Duress

It’s partially Honda’s own fault for being self-reliant and not selling ad space on their livery as well as expanding rapidly this year. Now that it’s crunch time, it all backfired on them.

Dang it…I really wanted to see what their new car could do over the next season…

what is a carbon fibre fabricator thinking while he tells his family that he may only have a few weeks of work left in one of the world’s most cash-rich sports, when Honda have been running a logo free livery for the last two years?

Probably the same thing the poor guy at the Honda Swindon factory thats shutting down for 2 months, or the delayed one in India, is thinking as he fears for his job whilst watching his company plough hundreds of millions of dollars into a non-essential sport.