http://www.homeofsport.com/f1/news/item.aspx?id=20832 Super Aguri fate in Honda hands Posted 11 December 2007 at 08:09 GMT The fate of the struggling Super Aguri team will be discussed this week, reports from Germany suggest. The authoritative magazine Auto Motor und Sport claims that Honda, the engine and chassis supplier that heavily subsidised the Leafield based team's flagging budget in 2007, could pull the plug on Super Aguri. Aguri Suzuki-led Super Aguri, despite scoring 4 points this year, failed to attract lucrative sponsors and actually lost its main backer SS United mid-season. Auto Motor und Sport claims that Honda paid for "more than half" of the satellite team's bills in 2007 - a situation that will reportedly be discussed by chiefs of the Japanese manufacturer this week. It is suggested that one option is to abandon the 'B team' project altogether, but there are also tangible benefits of the association for Honda; like increased data acquisition and - as controversially emerged in recent tests - divesting some of the 30,000km per team annual test limit.
They are in trouble. Swiss Blick's Roger Benoit doesn't give them much hope unless they find a RICH paying 2nd driver. Italy's Luca di Filippi has been rumored to buy in at 10 million dollars, but it is doubtful that is enough cash. OTOH Bernie hates loosing teams, so he might just help out. Wouldn't be the first time.
Too bad; I wonder how much incremental money they will receive from the constructor's championship now that McLaren has been demoted.......... Kevin S. Orchard Park, NY
Good point. Super Aguri was doing just fine until the Honda A team went downhill performancewise. Nick Fry in his infinite wisdom then went to Honda's management complaining about the support Super Aguri gets (which in comparison made him look like the fool he is). So they cut funding. Nice in house stabbing job.
Spot on...Auguri wasnt "half bad", but HONDA was in trouble EVER since they hired Fry...what an amazing morron.
+1 Super Aguri's support from Honda was entirely due to the outcry the company faced for firing Sato. I can't imagine they would shoot themselves in the foot a second time...
This is what is so utterly retarded about Max's world view. He wants to have lots of these little private enterprises in F1. But why? They come and go like the wind. What are the names that have been tossed around in the past 5 or 10 years? Prodrive, Arrows, Minardi, Spyker, Midland, Prost, Sauber and tons more. That's just going back not too far - go back further and its even more. But the big guys have been much more consistent. It takes a lot of money and effort to do well in F1 - most teams cannot give that. So when Max tries to cater to them he just upsets the big guys who DO put in that effort and to no end. Its madness, IMO.
+1 Restricting the big boys so the small guys can catch up is totally backwards. Let free enterprise reign. And fill the grid up with last year's chassis from the big boys. Anybody want to make a bet/forecast what "Force India" will be called in a year from now? The press is already taking shots at the way the team is run.
NOW THAT is an intersting topic for a new thread!...since testing is over, is winter...yadayadayada... Maybe they will be bought by PRODRIVE so they can race once and for all?...I was eager to see this guys have ago, and make HONDA and TOYOTA look ridiculous...they learn their way around real quick and end up high in the game...
BusinessF1 magazine has a big article and interview with Mallya. He states that the team has a budget of 100 Million USD for 08 and that the goal is to move two places up on the grid and that the goal for 09 is a further two places. Very hard to imagine and to believe IMHO. Blick's Roger Benoit OTOH calls the recent Jerez shoot out "ridiculous" and says the team still has no clear direction and no sense of management. To me it looks like money isn't an issue for the next couple of years, but I still don't see them leaving Honda, Superbestfriends, Torro Rosso and Toyota in the dust. If they do, they deserve the name "Force". We'll see.
Sounds like Honda trying to eliminate some competition to relegate themselves up the ladder the easy way. Too bad for Superbestfriends.
i actually feel neutral on this. the customer chassis thing i mean. one one side, i would prefer some mid runner teams like Honda to sell chassis to smaller teams, so that they can survive, and get decent results at almost every race. OTOH, i feel for private teams like Williams. but then again, i would prefer if small teams can challenge the mid runner teams and finish in the top 10 on a regular basis. i means, what the heck is the point if Force India starts next yr in this season's crap car and finish last, lapped 3 times every race?
If Honda was smart they would strengthen their ties to Super Aguri (SA). SA's performance - being a first year team with a fraction of the budget - was impressive considering their relative performance to their big Asian brothers (factory Honda and Toyota teams).
BAR had all the money in the world with the same game plan for JV. The team went nowhere and it tanked his career, although he was remunerated in full. Someone has to be last and normally that means the new guy for at least a few years, no matter what the budget or good intentions. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't 'Force' a stillborn F1 team in the 80's ? History repeating perhaps.
That is laughable, we all know money doesn't automatically buy F1 success (Good Job Toyota) and the team seems to be on shaky feet right now. Plus, it seems more like a publicity stunt than an actual F1 team. I believe it was Super Aguri who said that they would be winning races in the 2008 or 2009 season,
They can't get rid of super best friends, Sato passed Alonso in Canada and that's enough for me to root for them.
Force India will last 1-2 years. When ProDrive finally gets into F1 they will last 2-3 years, tops. STR and maybe even RBR will be around for 5-6 years or until Matshechitz (or whatever his name is) gets tired of his new toy or of not winning. Aguri won't last either. Meanwhile Max wants to make sure that the big guys can't spend a lot on CFD (an area where they WANT to spend $$$ which passes directly onto their road cars) to make sure the little guys don't get left behind. Pathetic.
I personally think the devaluation of the US dollar and the fact we are in some sort of a recession in the USA will have a direct bearing on how Honda makes this business decision. I also think the FIA should just go back in time and mandate the Cosworth DFV, Ferrari Flat-12 or Matra motors as the spec motors to choose from.. I also think they should allow 'customer cars'.
...ForceIndia has the money but thet will be another banner on wheels...I hate to see them around just to fill the spot instead of really trying to make a good competitive car with their efforts...kinda like Arrows, they had a car that was really getting closer to midfield, they had great in line speed and the venues with longer straights really suited them...but they ran out of funding kinda early...Even Auguri did great with what was in hand!!! ...YES the Jerez test was in deed a shame for this guys...I guess there is no easy way to get in as a new team in F1,TOYOTA toured the whole prior year with SALO on board just to adapt everything and test the same day and the same conditions as the top dogs... not even PRODRIVE and its incredible credentials have been able to get to grips with Max temper either... SPYKER could have made a better effort but they where broke before they started...and if there is a team of professionals that have the experience, the technology, and the money...that one is PRODRIVE... they should pick the pieces of another small dying team (SuperAuguri or the IndyBoysForce soon enough) and start to rock the boat and see if they can show Williams, Toyota and even Honda a thing or two about monoposto racing...because I still believe they have what it takes, at least on the pedigree...
If some smart cookie interested in the team, had them play a sob story with Bernie, they could possibly get themselves a good deal.
Bernie might lend you some money, but rest assured, he always gets it back with interest. He was the silent partner behind Minardi in the Stoddart years keeping the team afloat, but when it was time to sell it and Red Bull's Mateschitz opened the cheque book, it was Bernie's name to whom that cheque was made out to. Same goes for the FOM TV money. Stoddart didn't see much cash anymore.
Is the current situation any better than the late 1980s when we had pre-qualifying because there were so many mediocre teams floating around?
