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Oli

Honda Rescued!

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If there is no Honda F1 (which i think there will be if they perform well at Melbourne, Honda are just giving them a chance me thinks).

Then Button will probably take over Piquet Jnr at Renault (if he performs like he did last year).

Button and Alonso as a driver pairing is very very strong indeed.

I'd like to see that, but I hope Flabbio has'nt forgotten about Button's spell @ Renault in 2002!

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If this is indeed true. I hope Honda go with the all Black Livery this year! I know its only a testing livery but they havent tested and they havent got much time to design one.

Just go with the simple Black because it looked great with it!

honda2007launch1-rg.jpg

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Seans link:

With little over six weeks to go now before the 2009 season-opening Australian Grand Prix, rumours are finally circulating that Honda F1 has been saved

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From Manipe:

Rumours are intensifying this evening that Honda F1 has been saved, and will be on the grid for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at the end of March. According to British website crash.net, an e-mail circulated to Honda F1 employees by team principal Ross Brawn suggests that the operation has been saved, with the actual saviour of the team as yet unknown.

It's being speculated that a total of five sponsors have been found to help raise the necessary cash, while other rumours suggest that F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone may be willing to put his hand in his own pocket to secure the team's future, giving him a say at the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) currently out of his control. Other stories, meanwhile, say that Honda themselves are willing to part-finance the team for the short-term, in order to avoid the huge cost of laying off the 600-odd staff at Brackley and paying the resulting redundancy packages.

As regards driver line-ups, the grandprix.com website is reporting that Brazilian Bruno Senna has been signed for the coming season, and will drive alongside Jenson Button, leaving no seat for Rubens Barrichello. Although early rumours suggested that the team would use Ferrari engines, it is now almost certain that the team is gearing up for a switch to Mercedes power, meaning the German marque would be supplying three teams on the grid -- McLaren, Force India and Honda.

With five weeks remaining before teams must ship their gear off to Australia, it remains unclear whether or not the team will appear at any forthcoming test with their new car, or if it will have to wait until the season-opener to be run. However, either way, it's expected that an announcement with regard to the team's future will be made soon.

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Fed up with the 'Ola!' sunglasses thing. Still in Spain though. Just a thought. Does Bernie own the Brabham name? Just a thought.

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Crying out loud already. Just bloody tell us if they're racing or not. Sick of all this question mark stuff.

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Crying out loud already. Just bloody tell us if they're racing or not. Sick of all this question mark stuff.

Well said, :D Hope they heard you!

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Fed up with the 'Ola!' sunglasses thing. Still in Spain though. Just a thought. Does Bernie own the Brabham name? Just a thought.

I think that was bought by the now defunct Middlebridge group.

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Crying out loud already. Just bloody tell us if they're racing or not. Sick of all this question mark stuff.

Calm yourself! They're definitely racing for time Steph! Signs are all good - who can say more? Except of course, the team.

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...without a car launch or any form of testing??????????

Wishful thinking it seems to me.

Minardi managed it for 20 years!

Then Button will probably take over Piquet Jnr at Renault (if he performs like he did last year).

Button and Alonso as a driver pairing is very very strong indeed.

I agree, but it wont happen, they cant just break Nelsons contract, anyhow Renault is Alonso's team and JB would be treated like a bitch.

Wouldn't put my bits on the line for this site, but it's not bad - source http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns21178.html

Hard to believe because Jenson himself said today (or maybe yesterday) at a triathlon event that he's got his fingers crossed, he didnt give any news or appear any more confident than previously. I hope it is true though!

I'd like to see that, but I hope Flabbio has'nt forgotten about Button's spell @ Renault in 2002!

JB & Flabbio didnt exactly end well in 2002, cant see them reuniting ever.

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It would seem that the team can now run for at least four GPs thanks to $30m of Brazilian funding. People will quite rightly view this as a rather desperate marketing ploy but if they're not in the mix they can hardly expect to raise more funding or find a permanent buyer. Sadly, car performance will be nothing short of shocking in the first race and they will have to make stellar progress before the cash runs out if they are to achieve their goal. Jenson has taken employee loyalty light years beyond even the most fanatical Japanese levels. You could be unkind and call it blind stupidity. I rather think that if the tenacity we have seen from JB and the Brackley squad since Honda bailed out, had been present on the race circuit over the past three years, things would have never reached such a ludicrous impasse. Good Luck to them all - Go Jens, Go Bruno - and don't let them down Ross; make it work, you beautiful genius!

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It would seem that the team can now run for at least four GPs thanks to $30m of Brazilian funding. People will quite rightly view this as a rather desperate marketing ploy but if they're not in the mix they can hardly expect to raise more funding or find a permanent buyer. Sadly, car performance will be nothing short of shocking in the first race and they will have to make stellar progress before the cash runs out if they are to achieve their goal. Jenson has taken employee loyalty light years beyond even the most fanatical Japanese levels. You could be unkind and call it blind stupidity. I rather think that if the tenacity we have seen from JB and the Brackley squad since Honda bailed out, had been present on the race circuit over the past three years, things would have never reached such a ludicrous impasse. Good Luck to them all - Go Jens, Go Bruno - and don't let them down Ross; make it work, you beautiful genius!

Not being up to speed with when payments to FOCA are made Sean... if this is true (and I doubt the Guardian are accurate) then there's the TV rights share, Honduh's 'severance' cash (to save face, which they haven't!), so maybe things aren't as bad as they look?

And I wonder if Bernie would put anything in (rumoured he is, as he did with Minardi) to help weaken the FOCA alliance, if costs are going to be as low as planned in '10 then he stands to gain in one or two years when costs are low, and his 'share' might be leverage with someone like Hyundai or other manufacturer he wants a deal with.

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I rarely see race cars race in plain black, in fact the only 1 I saw was at Le Mans which was the Epsilon Euskadi EE1, pretty nice car!

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Not being up to speed with when payments to FOCA are made Sean... if this is true (and I doubt the Guardian are accurate) then there's the TV rights share, Honduh's 'severance' cash (to save face, which they haven't!), so maybe things aren't as bad as they look?

And I wonder if Bernie would put anything in (rumoured he is, as he did with Minardi) to help weaken the FOCA alliance, if costs are going to be as low as planned in '10 then he stands to gain in one or two years when costs are low, and his 'share' might be leverage with someone like Hyundai or other manufacturer he wants a deal with.

Bernie's ambi is definitely worth a mention here. I think he has slipped them a few quid and this will emerge, sooner or later. He certainly would want to have a voice of dissent in the FOCA alliance and of course, they are the most vulnerable animal on the grid right now. It's a perfect fit for him.

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I think that was bought by the now defunct Middlebridge group.

That would be the logic. However, we are talking about Bernie here! Just a thought.

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I've said this before and I'll say it again: (if the rumors are confirmed) it'll be so surreal to see the name Senna in F1 again. It's hard to express how much.

But I know from a good source that Petrobr

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I've said this before and I'll say it again: (if the rumors are confirmed) it'll be so surreal to see the name Senna in F1 again. It's hard to express how much.

But I know from a good source that Petrobr

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OK. Horse's mouth stuff. This is from Autocar:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73281

Bottom Line? The former Honda team will be racing if they can convince Merc that they can pay for a full season's engines. That means, they will have to be sure they can meet all their other expenses too to make such a commitment. There is still a fly in the ointment, it seems.

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The future of the Honda Racing team looks slightly more secure after Bernie Ecclestone said he would do his utmost to ensure the squad survived and was willing to provide financial assistance.

Soon-to-be McLaren-Mercedes team boss Martin Whitmarsh has also emphasised that Mercedes remains keen to supply the Brackley-based outfit with engines, and that the Formula One Teams' Association would do whatever it could to assist.

Amid reports that sufficient sponsorship had been found to allow a management buyout of the former Honda team to proceed, Ecclestone told the Times newspaper that he had been involved in discussions to keep the team in business.

"We've been talking to them," he said.

"Whatever happens we'd like to see the Formula 1 team stay in business."

He suggested that his position as F1's commercial boss meant European law would probably preclude him personally financing the team, but said there might still be ways he could assist Honda.

"I'd rather not comment on that but we will do whatever we have to do to try to make it happen," said Ecclestone.

"I don't even know whether we could legally be involved

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Bernie re-iterates his commitment to saving the Brackley team. From an first-rate source:

http://in.reuters.com/article/formulaOneNe...=formulaOneNews

One rumour that I've heard is that FOM and FOTA are discussing setting up a zero interest fund that all teams could make long-term loans from, when necessary. A revolving credit line of sorts. It makes sense. If there isn't a safety net in place soon, we'll could be down to six teams by 2011/12, sponsors will be thin on the ground and broadcasters will have moved on to more lucrative pastures. A dark view, certainly but a surefire possibility.

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http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45118

Its looking increasingly likely thats theyll be racing in 2009. But under what name?

And if they do have a decent designed car, with Mercedes engines? Button and Senna may have a decent package this season though the morale in the team must be at rock bottom.

Team Fryed Brawns? :lol:

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