Will Honda’s team race in 2009? (Poll)
Rumours linking Bruno Senna to a Honda rescue deal have been quashed
In December we did a poll on whether The Team Formerly Known as Honda would participate in the 2009 F1 championship. Half of F1 Fanatic readers thought they would, but two months later are we more or less confident about the fate of F1’s tenth team?
Will Honda's cars be on the grid at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix?
- Yes (51%, 628 Votes)
- No (37%, 455 Votes)
- Don't know (12%, 138 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,221
Loading ...There has been a lot of development in the Honda saga since the last poll. First Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu ruled himself out of buying Honda’s team.
David Richards has also publicly announced he is not buying them. Although his Prodrive outfit no longer have Subaru’s World Rally Championship effort to run they are tackling the Le Mans 24 Hours LMP1 class with Aston Martin instead.
Rumours last week suggested that a group of Brazilian sponsors including oil company Petrobras were poised to save the team and install Bruno Senna alongside Jenson Button. But Petrobras have now denied the claims as well.
New rumours have linked Richard Branson’s Virgin Group to the team. There has also been persistent speculation that a management buy-out led by team principal Nick Fry could happen.
On the positive side, Honda may be inclined to favour a sale as it would prevent them having to pay large sums in redundancy pay to the Brackley factory’s 700-plus employees. Mercedes has confirmed it is ready to supply engines to the team. But time is running out.
Do you think Honda will be on the grid at the first race of the season? Or will F1 be reduced to just 18 cars? Cast your vote above and leave a comment below.
Whoever beat me to the first vote is more optimistic than I am!
I’m going to be optimistic and say yes but I’m sceptical they will make it through a full season. I hope I’m wrong…
I voted don’t know, but I agree that if they do make it, it may not be for a full season.
Unless they 1-2′ed Australia, in which case their value will escalate faster and higher than anything in the past 6 months. Or ever. whichever you prefer.
Time has already run out. Honda won’t make it to the grid.
I’m going to have to go with no. I don’t see how the current management can possibly succeed without Honda’s support if they couldn’t succeed with it. I think it’s time for Nick Fry to stand aside, as his answer to any problem is to smile it off.
I was optomistic to start with. But as time has gone by it seems that putting a deal together is harder than I first thought. We keep passing the deadlines: first Honda’s to complete the sale but more recently (and more significantly) deadlines to be ready for the season. I find it hard to imagine they are going to be ready for the season, at least in a competitive form. With each day it becomes harder for them to be properly ready and the chances of a sale fall. I wish them sucess but I’m not optomistic.
I’d like to say yes but I’m going to have to say no.
They’d never get the team ready in time.
i’m actually liking the richard branson rumour-visions of f1 cars fueled by cooking oil rocket fuel, i guess. but i still have to vote no.
If Branson bought into the team and then put Eddie Irvine in charge, it would be quite funny.
@Michel – I think you meant Jordan and not Irvine. The Last guy on the grid,whose team was connected to common fans
I too was optimistic at first, but I’m afraid time may have run out on Honda. It’s a shame too, I’m sure I’m not the only one who was looking forward to seeing if their gamble of sacrificing the 2008 season to develop the 2009 car was going to pay off.
i m optimistic but time is surely running out.the things needs to run fast
I’m going with yes, as stranger things have happened in F1. Even if there were no buyer, Honda will put up money to make it to Australia to at least make it look as though the team are more viable for a potential purchaser, even on a more commercially-based system for marketing purposes, which I think would be good Virgin’s promotional side perfectly (airlines, mobiles, cola, etc). I think that Virgin could take them over, in fact I hope they do, and if that happens then a full 2009 season is secure.
I’d also like to say yes, but I think it’s too late in the game now, especially considering that the regs have changed quite dramatically.
Shame, cause an 18 car grid is going to look kinda weak, imo.
Having only 20 cars on the grid was bad enough so 18 is going to be a disaster !
They haven’t made it to testing, and they haven’t positively identified either a new owner or confirmed the Management buyout by Fry/Brawn.
I am very sceptical they will make it onto the grid. What is the minimum testing/approval time they can have from the FIA before the car is allowed to race? If we can, we should count down to that, and if the car does or doesn’t appear by then, we will know for certain.
they haven’t confirmed an engine deal either.
I voted yes.
Super Aguri made it to the grid in 2006 with practically no running and they progressed pretty well from there. Okay, it was a tried and tested Honda chassis and there weren’t the huge rule changes we have this year, but hey, the world is a gloomy place right now and its good to be optimistic.
The real stinker in all this Honda speculation is Mercedes’ insistence on a full year’s commitment to engine purchases. That won’t happen without a sponsor or a buyer with cash.
Which is why I voted no.
I voted no, although I hope I am wrong. When Honda first announced their withdrawal I was quite optimistic but as the days countdown to the Melbourne Grand Prix it looks less and less likely.
Even though a few sites are reporting deals being close I won’t believe it until the cars are actually on the grid in Australia. The BBC article about the Virgin talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7896784.stm
it includes a quote from a source close to Branson who says “the entrepreneur had in the past been reluctant to get involved with F1, because he saw the sport as a “big black hole for money”. “
I can easily believe this and I don’t think financially circumstances have changed enough for Virgin to buy a team especially in the current economic climate.
Also it is not just a matter of finding a new owner before the first GP as they have to sign a deal for an engine (the BBC article says the deadline for the Mercedes engines expires in a few days) and redesign the car the new engine, and as DG pointed out they would still need to pass the FIA crash tests, how long does would this take?
Then they won’t have had any testing at a time when with all the big rule changes and the in-season testing ban mean pre-season testing is more valuable than normal. If by some chance they do make the grid it will be at the back.
Can anyone tell me if they miss the first few GP will they still be able to compete in later ones, as during the final days of Arrows I think I remember reading that if a team misses just one Grand Prix that is the end, which was why they turned up to some races to do a slow qualifying lap as that counted as competing.
I reckon they will make it, surely a definite no would have been announced by now if something wasnt brewing behind the scenes. It would be waaaay too late now if there wasnt any real interest. I really hope they do anyway!
This Virgin rumour seems to be a relatively strong one at the minute, quite literally every news site seems to have it covered. If this rumour becomes reality my bets are on a Button/Sato pairing – i would certainly be happy with that!!
i put no, but that was before i saw that honda had confirmed the virgin bid.
i vote yes because otherwise ill be depressed. hope virgin comes through
I really can’t see it.
This would be a huge speculation for a poor, under performing team. Branson won’t put his money here.
Brawn is the best future this team could have.
I am absolutely certain that Honda will be on the grid in Melbourne. Mercedes may want a guarantee that they will be paid for the full year but that is only $7 million which is pocket change in F1 terms and in no way a show stopper.
If the team was going to close it would have been announced by now. Fry and Brawn are trying to raise as much finance as they can up front and I have no doubt had the Branson bid not arrived we would have had some clear indictaion that the MBO was going ahead even with some financial assistance from Honda for year one. It makes a lot of financial sense to invest some of the money they would have had to pay to close the team down to keep it going. That way they may save 50% of the expenditure.
Last night the usually very reliable Reuters put out a story saying that Branson had made a bid. It will no doubt take at least a couple of weeks while he completes the due diligence and Honda decide whether accepting the bid will allow them to save face etc.
Either way the team will be on the grid in Melbourne and if Branson is in control it will complete the season. With Fry and Braw in charge it depends on their ability to raise sponsorship. Would you sponsor a team run by the guy who was dumb enough to run without it for two seasons?
I am going to say yes. I finally think that now, if the Richard Branson rumours are true, things can finally progress. From what I have seen from Branson over the years, he is a man who richly values good publicity. Being in Formula One is certainly one of the greatest publicity boosts any enterprise can undertake, and a likeminded man has already achieved it.
Mallya of Force India has an airline and an F1 race team. Anything is possible, but time is now vitally
important. This deal, if its a reality, has to be done within the next week or so.
Also, the money Honda would have to pay the 700 workers at Brackley may also prove a factor. No company, no matter how big, likes to pay out for things like that. Its a long shot, but you’ve got to believe.
I don’t know if this counts for anything, but I drove past the Brackley factory today and the Team Transporters were moving around (yes I was sad enough to stop at the side of the road and look to see if I could see anything..!!). Pitpass is also reporting that team transporters were spotted on the road to Dover…
Then again, it could just be that Nick Fry is moving house and using the trucks to help!!
Very interesting thanks for that Adrian! Let us know if you see anything else…
Keith, not likely to see anything else I’m afraid. I was on my way home up to Yorkshire from a meeting in Kent and planned my route to go past the Honda factory (Yep I am that sad!! But the A43 is a great road to drive too!!).
Was tempted to stop off in Woking too, but figured I wouldn’t be able to see much there…
I’m amazed we’re at 50% again! I didn’t rate their chances very highly in December and I’ve only become more pessimistic since then. Still hopeit happens though.
Yes, TTFKAH will probably be on the grid in Melbourne, but then it will go belly-up sometime during the season.
I’m not holding my breath either.
What makes me laugh is Ecclestone
“F1’s commercial impresario Bernie Ecclestone has said he will do whatever he can to facilitate a rescue deal”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the same man who said “We don’t need Honda” ?
I think Bernie is going senile, probably has been for a couple years now.
If Branson commits, I think the marketing clout that the Virgin brand brings may be attractive to sponsors who are willing to invest. Also, this could also mean that Bruno Senna will not be given a drive since one of his major backers are Embratel, which is a phone company. I suspect Branson would not be interested in having another phone company’s livery on his cars when he’s got his own Virgin Mobile.
I really hope they make it, it would be a shame to see only 18 cars on the grid come Melbourne.
According to Pitpass if we have heard nothing by March 3rd then we should assume the worst…
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=37074
If Honda starts spouting we can still close down news items then I have to believe they are pushing someone (hopefully Branson)to close the deal.
I have to chuckle over the idea of a “Virgin” taking up with the “Pirhana Club”!
petrobrass will also leave honda.
it’s getting harder for honda to stay
As has been mentioned, a big factor is the engines. OK, a chassis under developed, is still a chassis you can enter into a race. But it’s going to be pretty hard to qualify for the grid without an engine.
Mercedes presumably have to make the things first: F1 engines don’t grow on trees. With them concentrating on McLaren and Force India all ready with the first Grand Prix now just over 30 days away, it’s a bit much to expect them to make several engines for ‘Honda’ as well at a drop of a hat.
If ‘Honda’ intend to use Mercedes engines, then they are pushing their luck.
@ glamourBob
It has been said by a lot of people that Mercedes have set Monday as the deadline for a deal to be done, otherwise they won’t be supplying engines.
So a lot of people are expecting news about the team on Monday
Good Evening All,
I too voted no. I feel that even if the take over bid is signed sealed and delivered they will still have problems as they would have not had any testing time. I hope that this deal is sorted out this weekend and hopefully the 700 odd workers ca finally have a good night`s sleep and get on with their lives.
Best Regards,
Chris.Borg.
To true
It would be nice for my husband and I to sleep well, not knowing if we will be able to pay our mortgage next month is very worrying indeed.
Brackley F1 will race in 2009 with Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button behind the wheel(s).