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Announced this morning. Yes people will blame the economic downturn but one has to wonder about the appalling management. Nick Fry seemed incapable of making the hard decisions about obtaining good design staff. One assumes that any new buyer will weild a heavy axe within that team.
PS Mad Max chopping and changing of the technical rega has cost the teams a kings ransom in R and D. J'accuse....
Comments
Well, Honda's performance in 2007 and 2008 has been ridiculously poor, still this was really unexpected, also considering the presence in the staff of a guy like Ross Brawn (where will he go now?).
And the big problem is that now the teams remain 9, and also for Toro Rosso (after Berger's pullout), Toyota and Force India I see a hazy future.......
Max and Bernie should seriously reflect about their continuous rule changes that in most cases end up increasing instead of reducing the costs......
Gotta be hard for all the teams to be faced with reduced funding when they have cars half developed.
Actually, after got back from Europe last year (you remember, that was the pub crawl that you piked out early on), the dear company had managed to put FM on the list of banned websites. Having a young family means that all of my spare time was at work, which is when I attended to things such as contributions to this place.
Then in April of this year, I finally got a gig back in Canberra. Unfortunately, we have to do one of those staged moves again, which has meant that I have been since then commuting on weekends to Melbourne to be with the family. The family move happens end of December.
Meanwhile, the new job is with one of those companies that lets you earn as much as you want, but that means that one has to work very hard (during work time!)to source the business to earn the earn. I can't remember how long it has been since I worked so bloody hard,and time for FM has, lamentably, suffered. It is only now with Christmas approaching and the general slowdown that I have time to post in this place.
Whinge over.
It's an interesting possibility, IMO, and definitely Ferrari (with Gene), McLaren (with De La Rosa), BMW (with Klien)and Force India (with Paffet through McLaren money) could be ready.
Red Bull might do it as well (with Button?)and Williams as well, even though they have the risk of seeing Toyota leaving (after Honda leaving F.1, also Subaru left rallies, and Toyota management risks to play, in front of the very prudent Japan finance markets, the part of the reckless spendthrifts in a period when factories risk to close and workers to go unemployed.......).
Yes, let's see what happens, definitely FIA cannot afford a F1 championship with only 18 (or 16!) cars on grid, and something will have to be done!
As for the other news of PSA group interested in taking over Honda F1 team, sounds very unlikely, considering the situation of French car industry as well (don't forget Renault might leave F1 as well..........).
Maybe it's my Antipodean upbringing, but as far as I'm concerned Max can go shit in his hands and clap.
BTW - as soon as it drops to eight teams, the big teams are compelled to run extra cars.
Dave Richards (via Prodrive presumably)
Vijay Mallya
Carlos Slim (68 year old Mexican Ex taxi driver and second richest man in the world worth 55 billion)
Honda insiders don't want Mallya to buy because he'll asset strip the best bits for force india. They're unsure where Dave richards is gonna get the cash from seeing has asked the government for help in bailing out Aston Martin.
So my money is on the Mexican cabbie. Imagine Jenson and Rubens driving for Slimtek brilliant!
[Edited on 22-12-08 by steamdrivenhammer]
Also Autosport says that "Honda" have been in talks with Mercedes Benz about engines. Interestingly if thats confirmed the official entry list will read
18 & 19 TBC Honda Mercedes-Benz
If it is I confirmed expect Paul Di Resta to play some role either as a driver or more likely a test driver.
But no news at all about any potential buyer.
And Mercedes have so little confiance on such new team, that they want all the money before delivering a single engine. Which means they don't believe at all in the suggestions the team could give them on the engines' behaviour (such "more testing" side is the trigger that pushes engine manufacturers to give their jewel to more clients, apart from money...).
No, I'm ready to bet this project won't see the light, and the Honda (ex BAR, ex Tyrrell) team will fade away like Lotus, Brabham, Arrows, Ligier/Prost, Larrousse....while, at least, a bit of Minardi is still there and went on top of the podium in Monza.
"Das Team wird in der kommenden Woche einen Shakedown in Silverstone absolvieren, danach wird man an den Testfahrten in Barcelona und Jerez teilnehmen. Im Vergleich zur Konkurrenz von Force India und Toro Rosso hätte das Honda-Nachfolgeteam demnach in der Saisonvorbereitung gar nichts verloren. In den Verhandlungen mit Mercedes ist man kurz vor einem Abschluss, der Neuwagen bereits an das deutsche Triebwerk angepasst.Die Manager des Rennstalls haben das nötige "Kleingeld" auch ohne zusätzliche Hilfe von Bernie Ecclestone oder einem Milliardär (Carlos Slim, Richard Branson) zusammenbekommen. Durch die Gelder aus dem Vermarktungstopf, einer Finanzhilfe von Honda und neuen sowie alten Sponsoren könnten in etwa 80 Millionen Euro zusammengekommen sein. Angeblich könnte das Team unter dem Namen "Brackley F1" an der Formel-1-Weltmeisterschaft 2009 teilnehmen."
Brackley F1 is going to be the new name. Brawn and Fry somehwo got the money from Honda, Marketing and past and present sponsors.
Second seat is still in doubt between Rubens and Bruno Senna, most probably the latter.
But I will believe all of this only when I see it.