heard this news lastnight on Sports tonight !

i was shocked to hear it .

their whole ad campaign is based/themed around F1 techno and R&D into their road cars .

Apparently it cost them something like $450 million dollars to go racing each year and the Global financial crisi is to blame for them pulling out.

its leaves Button and Barachiello without a drive for 09 .

 

Yes, it's sad to hear Honda are leaving F1. I don't think many people saw that coming. Having said that, on the other hand it wasn't a surprise - I suspect there's more to it than the financial crisis. Over the years, successive regulations have been imposed, restricting technological development to the point where long regarded "lesser" categories like CART, IRL, F3000/GP2 were producing cars almost as quick or cars with more power. Ironically, those categories or heavily regulated as well. Formula 1 is no longer the arena for companies to express their engineering abilities. And now with talk of standardised engines - Honda's bread and butter - it makes little or no sense for an innovative engineering company like Honda to continue.

 

theres talk of Toyota pulling out as well !

i remeber a quote from Sirchiro Honda ... " without racing - there is no Honda" . he would be turning in his grave right now


i suppose they are going to focus on the Indy/champ car series instead, as it has huge potential for them in the states to sell more cars.

but yes, over the years , F1 rules and regulations are becoming too restrictive IMO. I can only imagine how fast the cars would be if they had no limits on R&D.

 

They would be faster but not by a huge amount. Mainly because a big reason for the cars to be slowed down by current regulations was the safety of the drivers. After Senna's death they really got into the whole anti-crash/crash survivability trend. No good going super fast if you are going to get killed on the first bend because of brake failure.

Also, another very big reason for the current regulations has been the fact that poor teams can't afford to make the cars as fast as the rich teams. If there isn't even the illusion of a level playing field there would be no incentive to compete. It would end up being a closed series with 3-4 factory backed teams.

Finally, technology has advanced so much that if you don't limit it you can literally have a car that needs no driver. That is why they reintroduced the use of the clutch (although it is not a normal clutch) and removed traction control and launch control recently.

 

Im sure Honda will return once things turn around.

Also the 2009 cars look funny but a good thing is they have re-introduced slicks.

Another thing which is new is this KERS system which stores energy created by the car, then this energy can be used for a few seconds per lap. giving a extra 80hp boost for a few seconds.

 

For anyone keen to read the official Honda word on this..
http://world.honda.com/news/2008/c081205Formula-1/

 

Looks like Suzuki and now Subaru have pulled out of WRC as well.

Subaru follows Suzuki out of WRC

 

GEEZ !!!
who would of seen that coming ????

Subaru pride themselves on their WRC involvement.

i wonder who is going to be next in F1 ?

 

I guess that leaves Chris Atkinson without cars to crash next year.

 

honda may be saved

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/artic...tnyQE62E3yUwcqw

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44845