Honda pulls out of F1 due to global economic turmoil

Sports sponsorships and finance will go down,as companies go into business purely in slowdown times. There will be greater sponsorships, by more sucessful companies in Sport.

Car makers will cut down sponsorship in sports as they trim down costs in all departments.

Try being a spectator at one of these races; it is without a doubt the noisiest, most alcoholic charged atmosphere you will ever fine. That is simply not cricket.

Agree with other comments. F1 is only rich people or for the few in this world who are interested in cars. For the average person F1 cars are noisy and practically useless!

Everton2: there are those who get it and those who don't. I've always admired racing as a sport that seperates the men from the boys.

Wow I didn't see that one coming. Very shortsighted on Honda's part as their success in F1 has raised the profile of the company significantly over the years.

Foolish as they should weather the storm. To come back again will been ten times more expensive.

Here's an idea! Why don't Honda and Toyota start a breakaway F1 Championship for Hybrid Engines? Could be up and running within a few years, attract much more public interest than the current yawn, and could possibly lead to innovations for road cars (like F 1 used to). I doubt yesterdays dinosaurs like Ferrari and Renault would be able to rise to the challenge, but surely the Japanese companies (and possibly German ones) could lead the way.

very bad news.... its the 1st official victim of the turmoil...

The worst thing I can say about F1 is that it puts me into a pleasant sleep.

Fuji TV makes a cynical hash of it here in Japan in order to squeeze every last penny out of the exhausted late-night audience. This is absolutely unforgivable. Otherwise I enjoy it. The sounds of the engines are great. (Better in real life, plus you get the smells of hot racing oil!) The effect of a few hours on the environment is negligible, and my personal feeling is that it encourages people to be better and more conscious drivers.

Honda pulling out of F1 for financial reasons may be the tip of the iceberg. They are still active in superbikes, etc., though.

I never liked the sport anyway, its noisy and unfriendly to the environment. Moreover, it encourages people to drive irresponsibly. I am sure there are better ways of testing the performance of a vehicle or a particular design.

Maybe it will give Honda an option in the future to set a Japanese based f1 outfit in the future. This is instead of investing loads into the location inherited location from the team that they bought out BAR. Investing in BAR or the earlier tests with the more "secret" uk based HRD was seen more necessary then as teams had become stuck in their uk locations due to already substantial investments in wind tunnels etc which are not easily moved. In addition Honda can pick up and employ experienced engineers based there. However Honda have started to replicate and improve upon some of those facilities in Japan for now as dual purpose(road/race) R&D facilities. However they could use them for just racing in the future and thus have a proper Japanese based team. This would be healthy for F1 to become more international and not to be 80% stuck round the oxford cotwolds base in the UK. Anyway maybe as a company they have more important things and other technologies to concentrate on for the future. But maybe when there is more spare money again who knows.

In fact this is the third time they quit.

F1 is boring now anyway

why? this season was won and lost on the last corner of the final race of the season. There have been 4 different champions over the last 5 years in 3 different cars. That is pretty exciting. it sure beats the the inevitably of the Japanese baseball season, the European football season, The Super 14 etc...

This F1 season was great and next year shapes up to be even better with Alonso and Renault making dramatic gains.

They never won much; the engines and cars were not really a good advertisement for Honda were they?

Yes, Tatanka, it is the second time for them. Last time they dropped out of F1 in 1992/3, they said they wanted to concentrate on developing environmentally friendly engines.

I wonder what they can say this time, in order to stay ahead of the game?

Congratulations to Honda! Think of all the mindless generation of greenhouse gas that will now be avoided.

F1 is boring now anyway

Wow, things are getting Super Ugly.

Isn't this the second time for them?

I said before, everyting and everybody has a paradigm.

"sad"? what a bad translation. I think the word you were looking for is disappointed.... but I can't blaim them the new F1 rules are really stupid IMO

the worldwide financial crisis could force Honda to shut down the racing team if a new sponsor is not found quickly, Honda CEO Takeo Fukui said at a media conference in Tokyo.

That should read "buyer" not "new sponsor". Unless he means they are willing to give the team away to anybody willing to cover (sponsor) the operating costs. Wow! Anyways, if this is the right move for Honda, then it is likely the right move for Toyota too. And then BMW, and Renault, and...

Possibly as one domestic rival has left so why bother.

wow, big news, who is next Toyota?