Comments on: Honda pulls out of Formula One

By: davie

davie — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:50:46 +0000

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

By: acilk

acilk — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:40:48 +0000

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.

By: Wheelnut

Wheelnut — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:34:57 +0000

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.

By: Dude1

Dude1 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:16:34 +0000

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.

By: WVB

WVB — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:12:31 +0000

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.

By: Al Juraj

Al Juraj — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:14:56 +0000

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.

By: Fasthonda

Fasthonda — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:46:48 +0000

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.

By: Car Tuning

Car Tuning — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:33:09 +0000

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.

By: Falcodore

Falcodore — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:43:00 +0000

Agree with JT, F1 is a joke, surprised any manufacturer bothers entering that circus ring these days!

By: Fasthonda

Fasthonda — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:02:29 +0000

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.