Honda kills their F1 program

Effective immediately due to economics and struggling car sales.

Bad news for all.

Toyota will likely follow suit with honda out, no reason for them to stay.

If that happens, then not enough cars to field. Expect to see MB and BMW to be the next to withdraw. If that happens, it will be the nail in the coffin for F1 as it is today.

Bernie's power games and complete withdrawal from the N American market is what it hurting F1. NA is still the largest market for the constructors and without races here, no return on their investment. They could really careless about a race in some distant desert that gets broadcast into NA in the middle of the night on some obscure TV station. They know that hurts their business.


With all that said, the Honda Team does have significant assets and there is a possibility some group will step forward to purchase and attempt to compete. Assuming this occurs, you have to question if the new version of the team will have the where-with-all to actually be competitive and if they have the ability to sustain the effort.


Now turn your attention to the US and IRL. By 2011, IRL will be running turbo motors. It is still out on whether they will be 4 or 6 cylinders, but they are looking to up the HP from the current 650 to 750 via turbos and smaller displacement engines. Also, multiple constructors are going to be brought back. This is good for IRL, competitive racing and the construcotrs as they will be working on technology they can more easily trickle down to the showroom. Also, the races will be run in N America...their key market!

Toss in IRL's talks with Brazil for Ethanol sponsorship. If that multi-year deal is inked, then there is a strong possibility of an IRL race in Brazil. Add in a race in Mexico City to the ones currently in the US and Canada and you have a true Americas Open Wheel Series!

This would be a series that is less expensive to compete in than F1, would reach the main markets, would offer technology that would more easily transfer to the showroom. Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday! Its still applies.

And the final bonus to the constructors? No Bernie or Max!!!

Starting to sound pretty appealing, huh?

Great post. I did not have the time to type more than I did!

Possible Ferrari could supply engines to the auqiring entity of Honda's team. I'm sure they would get the top shelf engine.

Keep us posted on what all you are hearing and reading. Your racing thread posts are pretty insighful and on target.

Besides, Bernie's wife is sueing him now for divorce, so at least he will have someone else to hate besides race fans for awhile.

on the brightside Bernie is fucked
and Honda I guess wont sent out that obomination they call the sucessor to the NSX since they were waiting to win the F1championship before they did


I bet no matter how bad things get though Ferrari will NEVER leave, I mean without racing heritage and the spirit of Micheal Schumacher to sell cars how the hell will they sell their new fugly cars??? Now they can atleast say it racing inspired aerodynamics

I'm sure you have read that Red Bull has said they fully understand why Honda has withdrawn. If this was poker, I'd call that a "tell" as to what hand they are holding and it looks like they may be ready to fold their hand. That's speculation, but something to watch.

Super Aguri can be written off as well.


Yes, Ferrari could start supplying engines, but then we'd have to rename if to F-1 Spec Series Racing. Then we'd have to hear all the same complaints we heard through the recent years of IRL and CART. I don't think that's what they want.

I'm trying to figure how Audi's withdrawal from LMS is going to impact F1 and possibly IRL. I think in the least, we shouldn't expect any Audi related companies rolling in to other series. If they hit any one series, I think IRL would be the best match for the points I have made previously.

North America is all car manufactures number one marketplace
if they back out of racing and go anywhere, chance are they would come here, especially with costs kept down

could you imagine NASCAR taken over by Honda, Toyota, Audi, Ferrari, whatever
guess that would truely be the end of GM, Ford, and Chrysler