Honda pulls out of Formula One
December 5, 2008 by George Skentzos
Earlier reports have been confirmed, with Honda having released an official statement outlining its withdrawal from all Formula One activities.
The decision has been brought on by the deteriorating state of the auto industry as a result of the sub-prime problem in the United States, the deepening credit crisis and the sudden contraction of the world economies.
Honda has acted in the best interests of its core business activities to secure its long term viability as uncertainties in the economies around the globe continue to mount.
“By making the best of what we have learned during these times of economic turmoil, coupled with the spirit of challenge gained through active participation in racing, we intend to continue with our commitment in meeting new challenges.”
The company will enter into consultation with the associates of Honda Racing F1 Team and its engine supplier Honda Racing Development regarding the future of the two companies – which may include offering the team for sale.
Honda has competed in Formula One since the 2000 season with BAR before switching to a completely Honda-owned team in the 2006 season.
This included the controversial decision to use an Earth livery in 2007 in order to raise awareness of the environmental issues facing the planet, in lieu of advertising and sponsorship logos.
Print it: 
They did it. Wow, guess they’ll be off Bernies xmas card list now. Pity Jensen Button, gone from £20 million per annum to zilch, hell he’ll suffer this xmas, no turkey on the table for him then.
Well I guess Barrichello is retired now…
The circus has been in damage control for years anyway.Honda make a good product,F1 is a joke, next will be toyota.
Billy Birmingham said it best. “these far king cars have just been going around and around and around and its been so far king boring!”
Don’t care for F1.
AAA Says:
December 6th, 2008 at 6:17 am
“Don’t care for F1.”
Why did you bother posting this comment, let alone read this article?!? Sheeezzzz…
No doubt most motorsports are going to take a bit of a dive in the next year or 2.
This is big news, but Honda have been a disaster in F1 this time around.
1 race win, a fortune on drivers’ salaries, & a reputed budget of $700 million + per annum.
Then to top it all off, a couple of years ago they told their sponsors to get stuffed & painted a Green Theme on the race cars, etc.
My father has had several new Hondas over the years, but none of the current models have that “Gotta Have One” quality about them.
Maybe they could used the money saved from F1 to hire a new car designer.
And Toyota still in F1?
This, by any measure is a colossal failure.
A couple of podiums after several years & several Billion dollars?
Tell you what Toyota, can the F1 program, & sell The Prius in Oz at Corolla prices.
As I’ve mentioned before, Honda should buy Volvo. They could offer Ford $1 for it, and then put the 5cyl turbo into the Civics and accords. The rest of the stuff could be thrown away.
Then their cars might become interesting.
Imagine a Honda that doesn’t need to rev to 5000 before a bit of torque is available.
RECKLESS
If Honda did what you suggested then it would be just like another boring VW-On that point VW cannot even come up with it’s own engines -any VW engine -of any significance has been a hand-me-down from the AUDI group.
In other words without AUDI,VW would be in serious trouble with their engine line up.
NO,Honda hasn’t needed any help in building it’s own engines.Whether they will put turbos in the future –who knows, but if they do decide to go down that path I’m sure they will be great engines and decidingly more performnace orientated than the anaemic engine in say,the current GTI.
In terms of torque,the GTI turbo competitors all have more torque and power and generally the GTI has always been last in performance reviews,but first for it’s interior touchy-feely soft rubbers and plastics-you know,it’s what GTI owners regard as the most important attributes of a hot hatch.
Agree with JT, F1 is a joke, surprised any manufacturer bothers entering that circus ring these days!
i think their results this year were a major factor in their withdrawal. they have a bad management, they invest too much and their results are really poor. I heard they had a budget for this year of $500 mil and when you win only 13-14 points with all that money you realize something is going bad and you need to cut down expenses or withdraw from that sector. Barrichello was old anyway and Jenson Button hasn’t made anything great in F1 since his debut.
Car Tuning
I agree ,with Honda’s poor result after 7 years They should’ve pulled out earlier.They bought into a team that seemed to be doomed from the beginning (ie BAR).Back in the late 80’s to very early 90’s Honda(Mclaren/Williams)scored 7 Drivers World Championships in a row including the constructors.In one year they won 16 out of 17 races in the season.
They were only engine suppliers and maybe some other components.
The team had always been dogged by poor management,high turnover of staff and key personnel,people playing politics and key people not performing.
Honda spent inexcess of $60 Million for a state of the art wind tunnel facility that nobody knew how to calibrate or indeed competently operate.
Like every other F1 team they also had to cope with the myraid of rule changes in the name of saving money-which included restrictions on engine developement-well, you might as well have cut off Honda’s “arms” off-Engine developement is in Honda’s blood!
They had people like Gil Ferran- he was useless,Nick Fry a tool from the Ford Motor Company an unknown and little if any experience in racing and/or racing management.Their main current driver Jenson Button good driver, but I always felt that he lacked that special quality/ability to actually develop the cars.
Over the past 7 years Honda must’ve spent at least a billion dollars, money that could’ve been used for more product work for their road cars.
It’s sad that Honda had to leave without fullfilling it’s F1 campaign but at the end, it’s the right decision and one in which I totally agree.
Honda would probably supply engines to whatever party buys the team. Toyota won’t pull out as they still have a lot of money to play around with, at least not until they win a race.
i think it should be said that honda has been involved with F1 since 1964. The company has had the longest association for a car manufacturer with the sport bar ferrari. Their involvement with BAR from 2000> was imo, a down turn in their commitment as the likes of craig pollack & JV did little to uphold the marque’s pedigree. Similarly I think Nick Fry has squandered opportunity aswell. I will prefer to remember their utter domination and brilliance during the 80s and early 90s periods with their williams & maclaren partnerships. Mansell/Williams and Senna/Mclarens
I’m in agreeance with FastHond. It is a sad day and one of which that will signify a change in the sport forever. There have many teams come and go over the decades but when a major player with eons of experience calls it quits, somethings up.
Well done Honda and thanks.
JT and Falcodore, if F1 is a joke, then I wonder what you girls have to say about V8 Supercar Racing? I cant believe anyone would bother watching a circus with only two clowns on show.
v8 Supercars may be just a 2 horse race although F1 is virtually the same given that the last couple of seasons have been dominated by Mercedes Benz McLaren and Ferrari with a number of “also rans” [to help make up the numbers].
But at least with V8 supercars it comes down to driver skill as there aren’t any of the computer controlled driver assists to help keep the car on track – I know F1 are gradually removing them abut as they are doing so it appears that more and more drivers are failing to finish
I mean unlike V8 Supercars youd be lucky to have an F-1 race where more than 50% of the field finish.. so which drivers are more skillful?
Out of the two; V8 supercars is a rawer more pure form of motorsport whereas with all the technology in F[arcical]-1 the drivers are virtually nothing more than highly paid jockeys.
Prodrive is considered most likely to buy the team. Honda is so desperate to sell the team that they have payed off all team debts and won’t be passing them onto the buyer. Also the buyer gets the excellent facilities of the team in Brackley for as low a $1. David Richards (Head of Prodrive) has experience leading F1 teams. He was head of the Benetton for a year and head of the BAR team that turned into this Honda team.
Wheelnut,
I admire most forms of motorsport racing including F1 and V8’s but the argument about technology and computer systems in F1 vs V8’s is nonsense.
In all honestly both divisons are almost exactly the same, completley dedicated race cars having almost nothing to do with any production car and employing advanced technology which dubiously skirts the ever changing legal limits of the class.
in F1 all this is self evident, However V8’s there is a token effort to pretend the car is somehow related to a production sedan. It is not.
V8 supercars run a huge amount of dedicated racing copmputers and equipment which are not obtainable in the showroom. For example the average “VE” supercar has the following:
- Bespoke body (VE front/back grafted on a VZ shell)
- Front Whishbone suspension (vs struts in showroom)
- Rear live axle (vs IRS in showroom)
- 9 inch diff
- custom built for racing 5-litre Chev crate engine
- sequential gear box (just like F1)
- adjustable brake bias
- onboard computer system (look at the dash)
As I said, its still enjoyable but lets not fool ourselves that V8 supercars less computer controlled and somehow more “authentic” than F1.
Cheers
davie