Carlos Slim, CEO of Telmex and second richest man in the world, has bought the Honda F1 team, according to an Italian newspaper. Here is the story translated i ... sh from a Spanish website. Slim has an estimated net worth of $60 billion. The drivers for next season are expected to be Jenson Button and Bruno Senna.

Nothing much will happen with this team, not a good engine supply,etc.

I'm not so sure. Engines are much of a muchness these days (especially when compared to the 80s or 90s). He may have just bought an instant front runner - no one can really tell until they hit the track for the first race.

If he is that rich then I imagine he is smart enough to let F1 people run the team and not stick his own oar in.

well maybe with all his money being thrown into it i will become an challenge ferrari and mclaren.

The Chelsea and Hoffenheim of F1.

I want to see another source, but if he has got the chequebook and the patience he might be able to get places. Not straight off the bat with Jenson Button in the car and it being a former Honda.

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

I'm not so sure. Engines are much of a muchness these days (especially when compared to the 80s or 90s). He may have just bought an instant front runner - no one can really tell until they hit the track for the first race.

If he is that rich then I imagine he is smart enough to let F1 people run the team and not stick his own oar in.

yeah maybe, put i'm not directly comparing this to football, but if you look, some of the rich guys really like to get involved, e.g. Mike Ashley (newcastle utd.) and look what happened, he messed it up

To put this into perspective, Vijay Maliya (Force India's owner) has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. Slim's is 50 times that. Money does not equal success in F1 (Toyota anyone?) but the potential reserves Slim will bring to the team are unprecedented in F1.

Quote from amp88 :

To put this into perspective, Vijay Maliya (Force India's owner) has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. Slim's is 50 times that. Money does not equal success in F1 (Toyota anyone?) but the potential reserves Slim will bring to the team are unprecedented in F1.

thats a very valid and correct point

Isn't he the richest man in the world (now)?

Quote from Jakg :

Isn't he the richest man in the world (now)?

Doesnt matter, i dont think they will win races, (sorry for the ignorance)

i think it's pure speculation... but i think it will be good to improve the market or the interest of motorports in Mexico

Well, we'll just have to see what Ross Brawn and his team can come up with. They could end up with another dog of a car, or they could end up with the fastest car by a mile - nobody knows at the moment, and they won't really until the opening race - testing pace is rarely an indication of speed. And we've seen that in a competitive car Button can go pretty quickly, but we've yet to see him in a world class car to know what he can really do (although I don't think he's champion material, but he's a notch above most of the drivers on the grid in my opinion).

Telmex is not a very glamourous name for an F1 team, and so I think they will do poorly. :P

I will be very suprised if we see them on the grid for the first half of this year at least.

Quote from 5haz :

Telmex is not a very glamourous name for an F1 team, and so I think they will do poorly. :P

I will be very suprised if we see them on the grid for the first half of this year at least.

so if you have a glamorous name you'll win? i dont think so, besides, Telmex is just the sponsor and maybe it will be named Honda Telmex team, just like Mclaren Mercedes with Santander and Ferrari with Vodafone.
And if he invests a good money in the team, like getting good technology, staff and those things I think they'll be competitive.

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

I'm not so sure. Engines are much of a muchness these days (especially when compared to the 80s or 90s). He may have just bought an instant front runner - no one can really tell until they hit the track for the first race.

unlikely if honda didn't have the resource to do any sort of research and testing in the last months.

wonder what the team will be called.

Quote from zeugnimod :

The Chelsea and Hoffenheim of F1.

more like man city

Quote from tristancliffe :

And we've seen that in a competitive car Button can go pretty quickly, but we've yet to see him in a world class car to know what he can really do (although I don't think he's champion material, but he's a notch above most of the drivers on the grid in my opinion).

Thank you. I don't understand when people rate him very poorly. He's proven time and time again that he's a very smooth fast driver, and he's sublime in the wet. His weakness seems to be that he struggles to get the most out of a bad car, which he's had for most of his career. So on that basis I'd agree that he's not quite WDC material.

imo, his weakness is he's not intelligent enough to get a good drive.

Slim sponsors a lot of drivers already and will probably provide a route into F1 for many South Amercian drivers. Button will be out the door sharpish he he doesn't perform straight away.

WHat is funny is you have all this cost cutting, and now Honda F1 has a bloke that can throw money at it

Quote from chanoman315 :

so if you have a glamorous name you'll win? i dont think so, besides, Telmex is just the sponsor and maybe it will be named Honda Telmex team, just like Mclaren Mercedes with Santander and Ferrari with Vodafone.
And if he invests a good money in the team, like getting good technology, staff and those things I think they'll be competitive.

Wrong, Mclaren with Vodafone, Ferrari has no affiliation with Santander (as far as i know and if it still doesn't, it's yet. They want in under the condition to go in togheter with Alonso).

According to Autosport he is one of four groups interested, the others buying Prodrive with a Middle Eastern group, a Greek shipping magnate and a Swiss group.

Quote from Intrepid :

Slim sponsors a lot of drivers already and will probably provide a route into F1 for many South Amercian drivers. Button will be out the door sharpish he he doesn't perform straight away.

WHat is funny is you have all this cost cutting, and now Honda F1 has a bloke that can throw money at it

It is a little ironic, I thought the same thing. The very season where their future was in total doubt, where cost cutting in F1 is as big a topic as anything else, they will probably have a larger budget and fewer money concerns than ever. Not that I imagine they did before, not using the car for advertising suggests they weren't short of a few quid.

Obviously it's good for F1 that such resources will be used to improve a backmarker team, although money doesn't buy speed, or ideas, only people to think of them.

Button should still get a fair crack of the whip. If he's genuinely good enough to drive a front-running car then they'll be pleading with him to stay. If not then it's someone else's turn.

Quote from chanoman315 :

so if you have a glamorous name you'll win? i dont think so, besides, Telmex is just the sponsor and maybe it will be named Honda Telmex team, just like Mclaren Mercedes with Santander and Ferrari with Vodafone.
And if he invests a good money in the team, like getting good technology, staff and those things I think they'll be competitive.

Why would Honda remain in the name?

Telmex has done sponsoring in CART/CCWS: http://www.rfmsports.com/CART/News/DavidTelmex2.JPG

Quote from chanoman315 :

so if you have a glamorous name you'll win? i dont think so, besides, Telmex is just the sponsor and maybe it will be named Honda Telmex team, just like Mclaren Mercedes with Santander and Ferrari with Vodafone.
And if he invests a good money in the team, like getting good technology, staff and those things I think they'll be competitive.

*sigh* I was joking, oh well.