Honda Pulls Out Of F1
 The latest victim of the subprime crisis or the credit crunch, Honda Motor Company has confirmed that it is exiting from competitive racing of F1 ahead of the 2009 season.
Honda Motor Company Chief Takeo Fukui confirmed the news on Friday in Tokyo. He blamed the prevailing conditions in the automotive sector throughout the world for the withdrawl which also included massive fall in Honda sales in its biggest market, the USA last month.
“Honda Motor Co. has come to the conclusion that we will withdraw from all Formula One activities, making 2008 the last season for participation,†Fukui stated. “This difficult decision has been made in light of the quickly deteriorating operating environment facing the global auto industry, brought on by the subprime problem in the United States, the deepening credit crisis and the sudden contraction of the world economies.â€
Jump over for the complete article.
Source: f1fanatic
Fukui also revealed that Honda will not even remain involved in F1 as an engine supplier, despite the fact that Brackley based team is looking for a buyer before the 2009 season commences in march next year.
Speculations also say that Honda Team Boss and former Ferrari technical director Ross Brown has arranged that any potential buyer of the team will be powered by 2.4 Litre Ferrari V8. The world constructor champions Ferrari have the spare capacity to supply engine to an extra team since their past customers Force India has shifted to McLaren Mercedes for their engine needs.
Dubai International Capital is being speculated as one of the buyers, which previously tried to buy the Super Aguri team before Honda pulled its support for the satellite team.
7 People have left comments on this post
Honda’s pull out of F1 is more due to its failure to be anywhere near a victory or to be on the front of the grid. The economic slow down is just one excuse for this pull out. Honda has done these things many times in the past. If the economic climate is the real reason then why is Honda still in Indycar racing, in Motogp and WSKB? Honda has realized that right now it has no chance to be up there and so has announced a pull out. Ross Brawn has to say that the design of the car is good and all that in the hope that someone will buy the team. I feel sorry for him, since he passed up an opportunity at Ferrari to be here and Jenson Button who seems to have killed his F1 career by being loyal to Honda. As for Nick Fry, I can only say serves him right and he is possibly the reason why the team got to where it is. I remember when the Spice Group was interested in Super Aguri but put the clause the Narain Kartikeyan had to drive for the team, Fry said Honda has standards and that Narain did not satisfy them. Honda has subsequently shown its standard, finishing 18th and 19th in races. I hope Mr. Nick has other Fish to Fry since this great team of his is on the verge of extinction.
Honda has been seriously improving in F1. Their 2009 car has one of the best KERS technology so we can’t say that Honda is incapable of making a good, race winning Formula 1 car.
Check out the website of Maruti-Suzuki’s latest offering: The all new A-star, at http://www.marutisuzukiastar.com/
Man! That car is definitely going places…
Nobody yet knows whose KERS technology is in what stage of development. So how can anyone say that Honda’s KERS is the best. Also what is the implication in Honda improving? They finished at number nine in a field of ten. What improvement is that?
@Swati. Ahem I thought this thread was about Honda’s F1 team’s sale/shutdown. Why the A Star here?
I heard that the A-Star is being considered as a very strong contender for the CNBC Car of the year award!!! Isn’t that cool?!! I guess that proves what everyone has been saying all along, A-Star is a superstar!!
P.S.- Don’t you think that the A-Star deserves a review on this website? After all, this website is about the Indian Automobile Arena. And the A-star is changing the face of B-Segment car market in India having caught the fancy of the typical upper middle class Indian car consumer.
i just saw the site… the car is looking amazing on the site as well.
Esp in the screensaver
It is sad news that Honda pulled out of Formula one race.But it is the financial pressure that forced them to take this decision. Lets hope that they come out with some solution and in future hope to see them back in this vrom….. sport.
Rahul,
Indian Car Advisor (Carazoo.com)