The Beginning of the End for Formula One

I would like to throw some information at you, it might be a little hard to digest, but bare with me.

• AT&T, title sponsor of Williams F1 has announced it will cut 12,000 jobs in an effort to significantly reduce costs. [05/12/08]
  
• Phillips, Williams F1 second sponsor has reported its 3rd quarter profit will drop by at least 25%. [05/12/08]
• Credit Suisse, official partner to BMW F1 team has announced a further 5,300 jobs will be cut to reduce costs. [05/12/08]
• Honda F1 teams has officially announced that it is pulling out of F1 due to falling profits. [05/12/08]
• Sales of new cars fall by over a third, the biggest drop in 28 years. Most F1 teams are of course owned by car companies. [01/12/08]
• Ford, Daimler and General Motors could all become bankrupt within the next year if emergency loans are not put into effect to prop them up in the financial crisis. Daimler of course own Mercedes-Benz who part own McLaren F1.
• Kingfisher, owned by Vijay Mallya needs to raise $100 million through equity due to financial crisis.

So that's just a few news clips from this weeks papers. It seems everyday we see more and more companies going bust due to the economic crisis. The worst of course being banks and automakers, who of course are heavily involved in F1, Santander, ING, Ferrari, Mercedes, GM, BMW, Toyota, etc etc.

Sponsors pay millions to have their name on the side of a Formula One car. Companies who currently sponsor F1 teams are cutting thousands of jobs to save a few million. Is it not easier for them to stop sponsoring F1, and save huge sums of money?

Well, today we found out that Honda F1 are leaving the sport (a very sad moment i'm sure you will all agree). Many thought Honda to be the most financially stable team on the grid, however, we must have been wrong.

So were am I going with all of this? 

F1 needs big companies to sponsor them. F1 needs big companies to sponsor tracks. Without these big companies investing millions in the sport, F1 will literally fall apart, I believe we have just witnessed the beginning of the end of Formula One. Honda, one of the best funded teams have left us, who is next? Only time will tell, but will we see even nine teams on the grid in 2009, its looking unlikely.

What is becoming of the sport that was once the greatest sport on earth, a sport in which companies fought fearsomely to be apart of?