Honda Withdraw From Formula One!

[Mr Teddy Bear]

(my namesake suffers more bad luck)
Honda have announced that the whole Formula One Operation is up for sale: otherwise the operation will be wound up by the end of January 09.
This will send shock waves through Motor Sport & F1 and possibly make the introduction of one engine manufacturer for 2009 more acceptable?
The prospects for the US home car manufacturing industry would appear to be dire, with at least one ailing company on the brink of collapse.

What are the prospects for Daimler-Benz AG given the weighting toward the luxury large engined segment of the market ( sales are down 57% between Sept/Oct year on year) Will the fallout be limited to motor sport involvement or might the company itself be at risk?

Teddy Bear:-?

 

[television]

I heard today that a few companies are interested in buying it.

 

[Cole@MBS]

I heard today that a few companies are interested in buying it.

Was just on the news, sounds like 3 companies are looking into it!!

 

[jubhi]

Yes Nick Fry was on BBC News looking quietly confident about potential buy out.....

However this is still a big shock and I can imagine other teams following suit. Toyota I believe is already in financial difficulty and might be the next company to announce something.

What surprises me is that how this has happened to one of the bigger companies, I would have thought some of the smaller outfits would have been hit first.

 

[jubhi]

Also feel sorry for Jenson Button, I think going to Honda was a bad career move for him, he had good potential and I think a few years of his career have been wasted and now this

 

[stumpy]

Surely more will follow suit as advertising money dries up. 300 million Honda spent last year ! And 1 podium to show for it. Formula 1 may well become what soccer is becoming - a rich Arabs plaything.

 

[Splatt]

As an aside I hear that if they go to a one make customer engine next year Alonso has said he will jack it in.

 

[jubhi]

As an aside I hear that if they go to a one make customer engine next year Alonso has said he will jack it in.

Yes this is true and Ferrari have already said before that if this happens they will withdraw from F1 all together.

 

[recycledjuvenile]

is this just for their F1 program or all of racing? they seem to be in all racing e.g indy, le mans. acura e.t.c

 

[jubhi]

It is just F1, Honda participate in nearly all forms of motorsport being the biggest engine producers in the world. So I guess leaving F1 won't have a massive impact on their reputation/credability but still a big surprise that they're leaving F1.

In the scheme of things in relation to the economic state I guess Honda are being more cautious than anything else but given that thier performance has been very poor in the past few seasons it is probably the right time to go.

 

[JEZ.S320L]

As an aside I hear that if they go to a one make customer engine next year Alonso has said he will jack it in.

Oh Dear.! If Alonso THREATENS to pack it in - then F1 is doomed. In fact, on that basis, why not shut down Motor Sport completely

 

[Splatt]

The writing is on the wall

.I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Doomed, we are all doomed.

 

[Jay Gee]

Apparently Honda and Toyota were waiting to see which one blinked first(the Japanese loss of face thing) .Given their unfortunate lack of success,it was inevitable that Honda would do so.Toyota will now possibly follow.As to the 'one engine' rule-I suspect that one or two others will be thinking about the point of it all.A Mc Laren without a Mercedes engine,and a less than totally 'in-house' Ferrari ? Not to mention a Non-B*W. I don't see it somehow.I mean poor Bernie's just been dumped,so his head's gone-and as for the other one ??!!

 

[rapide]

compensation for jenson

they will have to pay him the £25 million wages that he has just signed the contract for, 3 years wages!, still not bad until some thing comes along as it does for these guys , after shave and watches sell well!