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Honda F1 to race again!
By Phil Huff
February 23 2009
RealHondaF1.com understand a management buyout of the Honda Racing F1 team has been completed, with a change in the senior staff also taking place. With news of significant, but specific, job cuts, we expect to see an official announcement on the future of the team this evening or early tomorrow morning.

Our sources indicate to us that the most significant change to the management will be the exit of Nick Fry, who we believe has been looking for a senior role in another sport in recent months. A further senior staff member is also thought to have exited the team.

Job cuts, whilst unfortunate, are to be expected. Our understanding is the test team and engine groups have been disbanded, something that makes sense with the supply of Mercedes engines being serviced by their own staff, whilst the in-season ban on testing means the test teams at many of Honda’s competitors will also be made redundant.

Brazilian driver Bruno Senna was present at the factory late last week, and is expected to be confirmed in the second seat alongside Jenson Button.

This is an ever-changing subject currently, and we’re having difficulty separating fact from rumour. However, we do believe the above is correct. For the latest accurate news, keep checking RealHondaF1.com.

http://www.f1network.net/main/s169/st140565.htm

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73425

Honda preparing to test 2009 car

By Simon Strang and Jonathan Noble Wednesday, February 25th 2009, 14:15 GMT

Honda RacingHonda Racing are gearing up to begin pre-season testing ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, autosport.com can reveal.

Despite no confirmation that a buyer has been found to secure the future of the Brackley-based outfit, autosport.com has learned that with the 2009 car now ready, team personnel have been instructed to get ready to go testing.

It is not clear whether the preparations are advanced enough for the outfit to be in a position to run at next week's group test at Jerez, but at the latest the team should be able to join the final major get-together at Barcelona later next month.

There is also the possibility that the team could conduct a shakedown in the United Kingdom prior to any testing on the continent.

There has been no official confirmation from Honda on plans to test, nor has there been any further official news on the future of the outfit since Honda CEO Takeo Fukui said earlier this week that he could see no 'serious buyer' for the outfit.

As autosport.com reported earlier this week, it still appears that the most likely outcome is a management buy-out led by team principal Ross Brawn.

Sources suggest that the only other potential bidder for the team was informed in the last 24 hours that they had been unsuccessful.

A Brawn buyout would be funded by finance from the Honda Motor Company, television rights money from Bernie Ecclestone, plus sponsorship income that could come from signing Bruno Senna.

The involvement of Honda's CEO Nick Fry in the buyout remains unclear - with widespread conjecture suggesting that he will not be involved in the takeover. However, sources have told autosport.com that talk of his departure from the team is 'speculation'.

FEBRUARY 27, 2009
Honda management buyout to go ahead

Multiple sources are confirming our reports that the management buyout of Honda Racing F1 has now been agreed and that Ross Brawn and Nick Fry will run the team, using Honda money - plus the money that comes from TV income, plus whatever sponsorship can be found. The driver line-up will be led by Jenson Button but it is still not clear whether the second seat will go to Bruno Senna or to Rubens Barrichello. If Senna brings financial support, as has long been rumoured, he would be in a more powerful position, if not Barrichello is a better bet as his experience will be useful in a year when there is little opportunity for young drivers to learn how to drive F1 cars.

It remains to be seen how many of the 700 staff members at Brackley will lose their jobs but with a vendor-funded management buyout the chances are that the difficult decisions will not have to be taken immediately. The primary goal will be to perform as well as possible. The team is building cars designed to race with Mercedes-Benz engines and the aim is to perform sufficiently well to attract money for the longer term, while at the same time, the team will support the cost-cutting programmes that are being instigated in F1.

It is highly likely that Honda will retain some of option to either buy the shares back from the new owners, or to remain a silent partner. The automotive industry is in some difficulty at the moment but that will not last forever and Honda may then wish to return to F1 in order to benefit from new technologies, tell the world about its initiatives and, perhaps most importantly of all, train its engineers in the F1 thought-processes that have done so much for Honda in the past. The company is most unlikely to simply throw away all of its investment to date simply because of a downturn in sales.

The name of the team remains unknown at the moment but we would expect it to be relatively neutral.

The team appears to have gone away with the design of the car with a Mercedes-Benz and so the first cars will be able to appear relatively quickly once the deal is confirmed. The first tests will be in England and then there will probably be time for one test in Spain before the team heads off to Australia.

The biggest challenge will be for the team to find the money to go ahead in 2010 when Honda will probably stop paying. Although there is a new management in Japan it will be hard to justift continued spending, particularly if the team does well using Mercedes-Benz engines.

As always in F1 the key to success will be performance and the disruptions of the winter months will no doubt have an effect although the car should be better than in previosu seasons because Brawn will have had time to filter ideas down through the company and because the Honda engine was believed to be rather underpowered in relation to some of the opposition in 2008. With a better engine and a better chassis the team should have made progress but then again so will most of the other teams so it is going to be hard to know exactly where Honda is in the pecking order until after a couple of races.
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns21210.html

Honda edge closer to completing buyout

By Jonathan Noble Friday, February 27th 2009, 14:17 GMT

Ross BrawnHonda GP Limited, the company name for Honda Racing, has begun processing formal paperwork ahead of the management buyout by the team that is expected to be confirmed within the next fortnight.

Company director Nigel Kerr, who is believed to be involved in the buyout of the team led by team principal Ross Brawn, has signed a number of forms lodged with Companies House that confirm some old outstanding charges for Honda GP Limited have been settled.

The charges, some of which date back to 1998, relate to buildings on the Reynard Technology Centre where Honda Racing are based, plus fixtures and fittings, and other floating charges.

The processing of the paperwork at Companies House comes as the management buyout led by Brawn goes through its final legal processes.

No formal news on the buyout situation is expected for at least another week, and could be even longer than that, even though the team are likely to begin testing of their new Mercedes-Benz powered car at Silverstone next week.

Brawn's continuing role in F1 appears certain, however, with autosport.com understanding that Honda Racing's team principal is scheduled to make an official presentation at next week's Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) press conference in Geneva.

It is understood that Brawn will talk about his role as head of FOTA's Technical Regulations Working Group, when the body outlines its vision for the future.

The bid to save Honda received support on Thursday when Williams chiefs Frank Williams and Adam Parr said they expected the team to make the grid in Australia.

Williams said: "They're a bunch of racers who I admire very much, so yeah, they might make it."

Parr added: "I think they'll make it. The fact that they're still talking is quite instrumental. If the Honda parent company wasn't faced with any serious opportunity then I think they'd have just called it a day, wouldn't they?

"The fact that we're four weeks away from the beginning of the season and they're still making kit must mean that Honda takes the proposals that are available very seriously."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73462

Button back on track after Honda come in with a £100m reprieve

By Jonathan McEvoy
Last updated at 12:31 AM on 27th February 2009


Happier outlook: Button will have at least a year's grace

Jenson Button’s Formula One career is safe – at least for a season – after Honda provided the British driver with a £100million reprieve.

Following months of speculation since the Japanese car-makers announced in December they were withdrawing from grand prix after an expensive and largely fruitless investment in the sport, Sportsmail understands that they will bankroll the team this year.

The news will come as a huge relief to Button, their 29-year-old British driver, who feared his career was to end prematurely.

Ross Brawn, the current team principal who masterminded Michael Schumacher’s unprecedented success, is expected to lead the reinvented ‘Honda’. The team will take his name. Existing chief executive Nick Fry will remain as part of the management.

In effect, Honda are giving Fry and Brawn the majority of the funding for 2009 so that they have the opportunity to bring in backers to take the team off Honda’s hands entirely next year. By then, the FIA’s cost-cutting measures will make competing more affordable.

Brawn persuaded the company to bequeath the £100m dowry rather than fork out a similar amount on making the 700 staff at the Brackley factory redundant.

However, some of the workforce are likely to be laid off as Brawn sets about reducing the budget by two-thirds from £300m-plus — a figure which, ruinously, was twice McLaren’s.

Button will again be joined on the grid by experienced Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in preference to his compatriot Bruno Senna who was widely tipped to get the nod. Mercedes will supply the engines, with confirmation due in the next few days.

The team then face a tough few weeks ahead of the opening race in Australia on March 29. The car has not completed a single lap, a problem at this late stage even without the new ban on in-season testing and the major overhaul of the regulations.

It would appear impossible for Button to be contending at the front of the grid. However, this bitter reality will be offset by the pleasure of stepping into the cockpit again in one of the three remaining test sessions in Spain.

The first of those starts on Sunday in Jerez, where there remains an outside chance of the new ‘Honda’ making its debut. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... rieve.html

escued Honda team to be called 'Brackley F1'
An expected shakedown as soon a next week
27/02/09 08:40



Photo F1-Live.com
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Button to be reunited with Barrichello in 2009?
With a blank livery and Jenson Button at the wheel, the team currently known as Honda will return to action at a Silverstone shakedown of its 2009 car next Thursday, sources from inside the Brackley factory are reporting.

With the Ross Brawn-led management buyout now approved - but not officially announced - by Honda Motor Co.'s Tokyo board, information is leaking from the outfit that had until recently looked likely to be wound up ahead of the 2009 season.

Now, however, suggestions of at least one - and possibly two - full tests at Spanish circuits in March are gaining credence, and one source told us that these will be preceded by a run-out with Mercedes power at Silverstone late next week.

With the Honda board also insisting upon a name change, the frontrunner at present is 'Brackley F1', but a final decision on this has not been taken.

Also likely - but not confirmed - is the identity of Button's team-mate.
Bruno Senna has all winter been named as the frontrunner, but given the nature of the challenge faced for 2009, it is believed the veteran Rubens Barrichello is now favourite to retain his seat.

Under Brawn's leadership, the funds for the team this year will come from increased and advanced FOM income, commercial sponsors, and Honda itself, who have concluded that it is cheaper to offload the squad as a going concern rather than fund the closure and compensate contracted staff, including the very highly paid Button.

The Swiss newspaper Blick said of rookie hopeful Senna: "The young Brazilian will drive in the DTM championship (in 2009)."

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/n ... 4040.shtml