Honda F1 team worth as little as $1.44

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Kernel Potter

Kernel Potter

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The epitome of a fire sale.

"Richard Branson's Virgin Group is reported to be one of the buyers interested in taking over the Honda Formula One team.

The Japanese carmaker, which announced it was quitting F1 last year, is hoping that it can strike a deal with a potential buyer in time for the start of the season at Australia on March 29.

Reports claim such buyers could pick up the team and its resources for as little at £1 but would need at least £40m per year to be competitive.

Virgin's involvement could be a major boost for the career of British driver Jenson Button as well as the jobs of the team's 700 employees. Button has been linked to a number of other teams, but he could be a welcome shoo-in for Branson who might find the prospect of an all-British F1 team, run by current chief executive Nick Fry and team principal Ross Brawn, very attractive."

http://www.channel4.com/4car/news/news-story.jsp?news_id=18781
 
The story of Honda pulling out of F1 broke my heart. Actually, Honda's disgraceful performance over the last two years has been gradually breaking it.

The problem is that the assets of the company are worth very little if the buyer isn't willing to spend A LOT of additional money developing the car and keeping the team going through the season and beyond ... and everyone's interested in spending LESS on F1 these days, not more.

Imagine buying a wrecked hulk of a very old Jaguar or Ferrari. It's no good as is and would require a massive additional amount of cash to turn it into something valuable.

It's a buyers market, that's for sure.

I've heard mixed things about Branson ... but for the sake of Button and the rest of the team, I hope he (or SOMEONE) gets the team and makes a fair showing in the upcoming season. They won't be challengers for the championship, that's for sure.
 
About the only thing they will be challengers is to arrive at each race. 2nd goal would be to make it out of the 1st qualifying session. 3rd goal would be for both cars to make it out of the 1st qualifying session. It's very gloomy at Honda F1 right now.
 
F1 used to be about trying new technologies and Honda was one of the leaders in bringing racing technology to their road cars. I don't what would change on your average Civic or Accord if they spent the F1 budget on improving them. I don't even know what Honda actually spends on the team, alot of the costs are paid by other sponsers. I am kind of surprised they are not sticking around to learn a few things from the hybrid rules this year as I think that technology will be advanced quite a bit due to F1 development.
I guess they must have conditions on the purchase of the team as it would be a great steal to buy the team just for the intellectual property rights. I'm sure many auto manufacturers could learn something from Honda F1 engines and cars!
Ian
 
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Originally Posted By: IndyIan
{snip}I don't what would change on your average Civic or Accord if they spent the F1 budget on improving them. Ian


For starters, a reliable automatic transmission with quality ATF.
 
It would be interesting to see the development budget is on the Accord. I don't know if adding 50 million is significant or not?
The only numbers I've ever hear is for the Ford Contour, and it was something like 6 billion dollars to develop that car back in 1994...

Does Honda spend half that much on each generation of Accord? I don't know. I doubt Honda engineers let a transmission go to manufacturing believing it has a significant flaw with their current funding but maybe they don't get all the testing time they would like.
Ian
 
The team was bought out by the new team manager Ross Brawn and will now know as "Team Brawn GP."

Sounds manly! Drivers will continue to be Jensen and Rubens.

I don't expect much from them ... but they can't do any worse than they did in 2007 & 2008.
 
Originally Posted By: Bror Jace



Still, I think they cooked the books a bit to get these killer lap times ... a full SECOND faster than the next fastest car???


Pre-season testing is always a bit dodgy. You really wont know how they rank till practice and qualifying in Melbourne.
 
Get yer Brawn news here and here. (my two favorite F1 sites)

The bookmakers have slashed the odds on Brawn GP, but I'll still wait until qualifying to see their true speed v the rest.
 
Let's see - - buy the Honda team for $1.44, rip out the Honda engines, put in Mercedes engines, set on the pole and win the first two races of the season. Can't do much better than that, can you?
 
Originally Posted By: 1999nick
Let's see - - buy the Honda team for $1.44, rip out the Honda engines, put in Mercedes engines, set on the pole and win the first two races of the season. Can't do much better than that, can you?


To bring things up-to-date, they have now won 5 of the first 6 races this year, and the report I saw said they had used the same Mercedes engine in the last three wins.
 
Originally Posted By: 1999nick
... and the report I saw said they had used the same Mercedes engine in the last three wins.

The rules for 09 are 8 engines for the 17 race season plus four engines for practice. It's the same for everyone.
 
Originally Posted By: ccs v2.0
Originally Posted By: 1999nick
... and the report I saw said they had used the same Mercedes engine in the last three wins.

The rules for 09 are 8 engines for the 17 race season plus four engines for practice. It's the same for everyone.


I am well aware of that. Deal is, they just WON THREE races in a row using the same engine. I thought the requirement was two races on an engine.
 
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