All you F1 fans, birdie from across the pond told me that Honda are feeling the heat, feeling threatened, and are losing their thunder in Japan as F1 premiere Japanese F1 team. The Sato deal did not drum up enough off season interest. They are resting a huge burden on Sato's '04 performance this upcoming season to swing the pendulum back in Honda's favour as Japan #1 team. However, I think he'll find a way to screw it up.

Due to the serious threat from Toyota,(Tomita taking over, poaching Gascoyne from Renault and another engineer) Honda are feeling threatened and have finally realized the distance between staff from Japan to Brackley is proven to be too great.

Honda are attempting to buy out BAT's (British American Tobacco's) sponsorhip and take over the entire team. So by '05, it would be Honda F1 and not B.A.R.-Honda. So they can follow in the shoes of Ferrari & Toyota..

Wouldn't be a bad thing.. A little too late in re-building IMO, as I think Toyota will surpass Honda before Honda get their sh**t together.

I'll keep the board posted..

s2ksimon