It's really sad news that Honda have pulled the plug on their F 1 operation. I wonder how many other motorsport disciplines could be affected by the economic downturn facing the automotive industry.
I wonder if anyone else will offer Bruno Senna a chance to test for them ? Also what happens to Jenson Button now as this must have come as a bolt out of the blue for him.
It's also sad becasue everyone was talking up Honda's chances for 2009.
"Racing is life,everything before and after is just waiting."- Steve Mqueen
Honda seema a funny bird about F1. They left McLaren back in the late 80's or early 90's then shortly after left F1 altogether. Later they came back to F1 and are now leaving....fickle bunch it seems.
Has honda been doing well or not? I haven't been following F1 lately.
Honda have not been doing well the last few years in F1.
On the other hand, they just invested substanial funds in a new car for the 2009 season. This is why the whole operation is up for sale, someone could step right up and buy a racing team with a newly designed car.
I believe Honda made the right decision. The entire world is headed for tough economic times. Better to place available funds in core operations than to use them in what is essentially an insanely expensive ($300,000,000/year) advertising excercise.
Meanwhile Alfa STILL has no factory supported racing team (even on a much smaller scale than F1 like WTCC).
If it was just the cost, perhaps they should have sold some space on the car, rather than being the ONLY sponsor and having a picture of the planet on the side of it.
Toyota next perhaps? It has to be the obvious candidate on 'money being spent for no results' basis.
Good to see that the 'reduced running costs' from the F1 rule changes a few years ago are so effective
Spend enormous amounts of money to redevelop a car and a brand new engine and instantly make most of the other previous developments redundant..........
It was excellent planning back then, and now it's really going to show it's value.........
I suspect revenue from advertising for 2009 will substantially decrease. Most financial companies are in dire straits. Insurance companies are also facing similar monumental problems. Some of them effectively nationalized. Petroleum companies will face shrinking profits in 2009, same with car companies. It would be interesting to see how this will all pan out.
F1 is pushing a spec engine (built by Cosworth) to reduce costs. Ferrari (and others) have said they will leave F1 if it becomes a spec engine series. Interesting times.
I wonder how many other motorsport disciplines could be affected by the economic downturn facing the automotive industry.
