So it begins... I guess...

From pitpass.com:
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php ... item.php?fes_art_id=36685

Quote :

While it has yet to be officially confirmed, our sources at Brackley have informed us that at tonight's emergency meeting, the Honda F1 team's workforce was advised that the Japanese manufacturer is withdrawing from F1.

I hope the team finds a way to survive...
What will happen next, huh?

Is it me or is everything dropping out of (or threatening to) F1, Teams, Races, Drivers?

Anything to do with Bernie and Max I wonder?

wow..... any secondary source?

Just saw it on BBC news which is a much more reliable source than Pitpass

Looks like it's true

edit: Sky news too

So what if everyone leaves? I'll drive if no-one else wants to...

I don't think either Honda or Alonso or anyone else will leave. It won't go that far.

Maybe one day only Force India will be left.

More likely to be due to the global recession as not many new cars being sold at present

And now it's on Autosport - pretty much confirms it

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72319

I think this might tell us what they already think of their new car though, they wouldn't withdraw if it was a potential front runner. It's quite a shock though, Jenson will be pretty pissed off after wasting his career for the team. The only possible buyer would be Berger, he said he would get back into F1 if the right deal was on the table.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a temporary cancellation of F1 in 2010 or 2011.

Quote from Intrepid :

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a temporary cancellation of F1 in 2010 or 2011.

I don't think so.

Shame if it's true. More back luck for Jenson.

Quote from garph :

I don't think so.

Shame if it's true. More back luck for Jenson.

I don't think people realise how bad the depress... sorry I mean recession is going to be. People have absolutely no idea how much badness is being injected into the worlds economies at the moment with 'fiscal stimulus' and what not. This is going to get bad and it would not surprise me in the slightest to see the most expensive motorsports in the world suffer heavily.

Thing is, they're not exactly giving people what they want are they... F1 is portayed as the ultimate judge of a team/manufacturer's ability to manage. And it's clear to see Honda couldn't do it. And when they did, they fired the one person who actually brought results. David Richards.

Don't be suprised if Toyota pull out either...

I think the FIA cocked up big time by bringing in KERS, it cost too much. They should have banned refuelling, that would have cut costs and improved the enviromental image at the same time.

Bernie will definately use this as an excuse to push through the spec engine plans though, the only way I can see it happening is if they agree to make it a tempory cost cutting measure to ensure short term survival of the sport. They won't cancel F1 because it would never recover, if it was gone for even a couple of years some government will end up banning it to make it look like they are meeting their enviromental targets.

It's a real shame that Honda will be exiting Formula 1 due to the costs of the support.

Quote:

Quote :

There are suggestions, however, that Honda may be willing to offload the team free of charge to anyone willing to support it - and they could even continue to supply engines for a period of time until another technical partner is found.

So as some of you have already said Berger may come back into F1 if the right deal was on the table. I personally think this would be the best deal for him. So if he was able to get some money and a backing partner then maybe he could get it sorted?

They need to introduce a claiming rule and let a bunch of GP2 teams buy Ferraris and McLarens for peanuts.

I dunno what you guys are on about? It's honda, the team that has managed to pour endless amounts of money into F1 and got less out of it than toyota. Hopefully some team that is actually competitive replaces them. And even if the other big teams like toyota leave then what? F1 will be a lot better with smaller teams instead of the big constructor teams imho.

Have to agree about Dave Ricahrds being important in BAR/ Honda's sucess.

I can only hope that if the privateer is on the rise then perhaps Prodrive will get a look in.

Quote from MR_B :

Thing is, they're not exactly giving people what they want are they... F1 is portayed as the ultimate judge of a team/manufacturer's ability to manage. And it's clear to see Honda couldn't do it. And when they did, they fired the one person who actually brought results. David Richards.

Don't be suprised if Toyota pull out either...

point made by someone on 5Live is that Honda operated on a no sponsorship car, while the likes of Toyota and red Bull obvious have the a main sponsor.

Wasn't there a rule saying that the minimum number of cars on the grid is 20?

I don't know about that rule. There were at least 5 + Teams wanting to join at the same time Prodrive applied. Why doesn't the FIA just let in all those teams in to the sport. Come on it's a real shame that the costs are hard even for a billionare company like Honda. Hopefully no other teams go bust .

Those teams only wanted to join when they could get customer cars, something they could do again as a temporary measure to cut costs and get more teams in. I think if any other big team is going to go then it would be Toyota, Mclaren and Ferrari should be fine financially, and Renault has one of the smallest budgets of the top teams anyway, even after increasing it this year. The clever teams will survive, the teams that have to buy their way into a good position will suffer.

Quote from Gav190 :

Wasn't there a rule saying that the minimum number of cars on the grid is 20?

Even if there was, it would be naturally changed to 18... Nascar did similar reduction recently.

Sad. One more team and 16 wouldn't be a credible grid anymore for F1. Even Mosley said that. But in some perverse way, I hope that FIA & Mosley and Bernie gets f*cked in the ass, or at least whipped.

I think there is/was a clause in the Concorde Agreement that said that if there were nine or less teams there would be a lottery to see who would run three.

F1 needs drastic action. F1 needs to legalize full customer cars for either 2010 or half way through 2009. It's that urgent.

It's that, or the world title being decided in touring cars.

Wow... It's such a shame to see how far downhill Honda F1 have gone since '06. Good car with sponsor -> Crap car without sponsor... Eeek. It's sad really.

Cmon Red Bull, give DC's seat to Jenson!