Time For Honda To Do The Right Thing and Line Up For 2009

When Honda announced it's withdrawal from Formula One at the end of 2008 it was presented to the world as a near certainty that a new buyer would be found and thus the team would be saved, heck the good folks at Honda might even provide engines to keep the outfit alive and if they didn't Ferrari would.

But that was then and now, in the middle of January 2009 and there does not seem to be a buyer on the horizon, Ferrari have announced it is unlikely in the extreme that they will supply engines and Honda seem to have given a definite no on that front.

Is this then the end of the team formally known as Honda F1 and BAR before it?

It doesn't look good that's for sure Dave Richards seems to be distancing himself following initial optimism that the Prodrive man would step in and reports of a buy out by Mexican based Carlos Slim are being talked down.

Of course negotiation is a hard nosed business and just because things seem to be looking bleak doesn't have to mean a saviour will not appear at the 11th hour. Perhaps those at Brackley know this perhaps they will roll on to the grid at the end of March a fresh and revitalised outfit (I dearly hope so).

However if this doesn’t happen what then? An 18 team grid for will not exactly fill the sport with confidence, it won’t look good on the TV and it’s something that must in my opinion be avoided at all costs. But who can stop it, well this may seem crazy but the obvious answer has been there all along, Honda can! It’s easy to walk away when the going gets tough it takes a little more guts to stick it out, sadly Honda have a bit of history for not exactly sticking around when things start to get a bit rough round the edges.

In 1992 as soon as Renault started to get the upper hand in a supremely designed Williams Honda ran from McLaren leaving them to endure a number of seasons in the doldrums.

In 1999 Honda’s new F1 project was scrapped after the death of head designer Harvey Postlethwaite, a sad situation indeed but still slightly perplexing given the promise of the initial lap times shown by the test car that was already pounding round the test tracks of Europe, this was no far flung idea it was a fully built F1 car and a quick one at that, a program never given the chance to evolve or compete, simply ended. When Honda decide to cease doing something it seems rarely to come with a warning or indeed much sentiment as was again proved in December 2008.

But I know Honda have good intentions (why else would you paint your gas guzzling cars like an earth to highlight the issue of global warming) and a reversal of this latest pull out can be seen as their chance of redemption, to show the world they don’t just leave people in it when things no longer suit them they have racing in their blood.

Now I know what you’re thinking they didn’t pull out because they felt like it but rather because sales of their cars are plummeting and spending around 200m a year on a F1 program in the current climate would hardly be seen as good business.

All the above is true but lets get real, they are losing billions not millions in road cars, the shutting down of the F1 branch was an effort to be ‘seen to be doing’ as opposed to a measure that will save the company and its workers. Pulling out now serves no purpose, what just might be smart however is showing the world you can run an efficient and nimble F1 team on budget, what could be better at economic stimulus and advert for your company than that?

The FIA are bending over backwards to make F1 cost effective, Honda should play a central role in securing the very future of the sport not run, if anyone can help it’s these boys.

My main reason for writing this piece was a quick look at the F1 entry list (released to the press yesterday) showing that Honda were still very much considered an expected entrant in the upcoming championship.

Indeed it is simply a piece of paper with Honda’s name left on that can be changed at any time and I’m sure would be were a buyer to be found. But the fact remains, no matter what they may say Honda have not yet left F1, they have not stopped paying their staff, they have what will no doubt be a very quick car designed and ready for manufacture by one of the brightest brains in F1, they still have a top facility and a driver under contract, not to mention an engine which requires no development sue to the freeze on R&D.

Essentially a lot of 2009 is paid for already and it certainly doesn’t have to cost 200m (just ask Renault), Honda have less to lose than they may have thought Now assume you stick Takuma Sato in the other car to please Japan and run your team on a budget.

Does Honda F1 look so daft now? Because it’s not too late to turn back, you can do it Honda you can make a real difference to F1 but not if you keep walking and you know what…it may even help sell a few cars, I think that's what they call 'the power of dreams!