Honda Quits Formula 1

Fr0dders · 5 Dec 2008 at 11:59

when car companies are loosing money left right and centre, they are obviously having to think twice about what actual revenue the Formula 1 project brings them.

Honda were shown up this year, so its fairly safe to say that its done nothing other than cost them money.

I think ferrari will still be in it, as long as it provides a good test bed for them for technology for the road cars. There is a very distinct link between how far the technology in current cars (like the 430 and Scuderia) has come, and how much research they put into F1.

Not so sure about the other manufacturer teams like BMW though.

NightSt@lk3r · 5 Dec 2008 at 12:09

Well you know things are getting bad when Audi withdraw from the 2009 American Le Mans Series

MarcLister · 5 Dec 2008 at 13:14

I wonder if Prodrive would be interested in Honda. Prodrive ran BAR when BAT owned it I think. David Richards did pretty well at BAR until Honda bought BAR and removed him. Then BAR/Honda went down really.

NightSt@lk3r · 5 Dec 2008 at 13:20

MarcLister said:
I wonder if Prodrive would be interested in Honda. Prodrive ran BAR when BAT owned it I think. David Richards did pretty well at BAR until Honda bought BAR and removed him. Then BAR/Honda went down really.

Prodrive wont be interested, there having to close down there GT1 and LMP1 programs to keep the company afloat so cant see them buying into a F1 team.

MarcLister · 5 Dec 2008 at 13:48

The team would cost £1. Prodrive would just need to find £40m sponsorship so not totally impossible.

Zip · 5 Dec 2008 at 14:06

NightSt@lk3r said:
With the possibility of Toyota returning to Le Mans

YAY!!!

with a Hybrid car in the next few years that's looking very likely.

Booo

NightSt@lk3r · 5 Dec 2008 at 14:13

Zip said:
Booo

Peugeot will run a Hybrid at Le Mans in 2009

Zip · 5 Dec 2008 at 14:32

NightSt@lk3r said:
Peugeot will run a Hybrid at Le Mans in 2009

I dont care about them

When will people learn that Hybrids arnt any good!
It costs to much to make and change the batterys and that causes just as much damage to the environment in the manufacturing process of the batterys and chemicals that go into them IIRC?

Whats the Hybrid engine going to be for anyway? The Electric engine kicks in while sitting in the pit lane?

NightSt@lk3r · 5 Dec 2008 at 14:34

Zip said:
Whats the Hybrid engine going to be for anyway? The Electric engine kicks in while sitting in the pit lane?

The hybrid motor will give an Extra 50HP at the press of a button, a push to pass as it were.

Zip · 5 Dec 2008 at 14:51

But is that really worth the extra weight of the batterys?

NightSt@lk3r · 5 Dec 2008 at 16:45

Zip said:
But is that really worth the extra weight of the batterys?

The cars are running with ballast to meat the minimum weight anyway, so it wont make any difference to the weight they'll just remove some ballast.

SDK^ · 5 Dec 2008 at 17:21

NightSt@lk3r said:
The cars are running with ballast to meat the minimum weight anyway, so it wont make any difference to the weight they'll just remove some ballast.

hmmm, it's not quite as simple as that