Honda head Ross Brawn in advanced negotiations with a prospective buyer
A well-placed source said that Brawn should be in a position to confirm whether or not a deal has been done "by the end of the weekend".
The takeover would see the team's annual budget cut by at least two thirds, to £50million, which would necessarily mean a sizeable reduction in the 700-strong staff at Honda Racing's headquarters in Northamptonshire.
There is speculation that the buyer may be Dave Richards, the chairman of Prodrive, which was brought in to run the BAR team in 2001. Richards was made team principal, but was replaced by Prodrive's then managing director, Nick Fry, when BAR was taken over by Honda in 2004.
Fry is now the CEO of Honda Racing, although it is unlikely he would stay were Richards to be successful in his bid.
Richards has tried before to start up a Formula One team with Prodrive, and were even officially entered for the 2008 championship before pulling out last year.
Any takeover would be good news for Jenson Button, the British driver who suddenly found himself without a race seat in the wake of Honda's confirmation that they were pulling the plug on their Formula One enterprise.
"It came as much of a shock to me as everyone else, and the first couple of hours were the most painful," Button said. "But after that I thought, 'What's the point of being down and trying to look at every reason for it?'.
"We need to stay positive in ourselves, and as one team, because if we're not, then who is going to be interested in taking us over?"
As speculation mounted yesterday that other manufacturers were set to follow Honda's lead, Toyota settled a few paddock nerves by releasing a statement insisting they were "committed to succeeding in Formula One".
Nevertheless, the current uncertainty surrounding the future of the sport gave FIA president Max Mosley, who has long been championing the need to reduce spending drastically, all the ammunition he needed to reinforce his message.
In an open letter to the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), Mosley revealed that the FIA is now in exclusive talks with engine suppliers Cosworth, along with Xtrac and Ricardo (XR) for the use of transmissions, that could result in an annual engine and transmission cost of less than £6 million from 2010."
The use of standardised engines has split the Formula One teams down the middle, with big budget manufacturers such as Ferrari and Toyota threatening to quit the sport of they are imposed. But that is exactly what Mosley said he would do from 2010 unless teams get behind him.
"This is a watershed," Mosley said. "It is very likely we will lose another manufacturer or two unless we demonstrate to them that expenditure has got to cease.
"It's too late for 2009 - although the teams are making a big effort to cut costs. But I'm talking about a budget of 20 percent of what it is now. £30-£40million should be competitive.
"If push comes to shove, we'll say 'Those are the rules, here's the entry form. If you don't like it then you can leave."
Formula One's commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone endorsed Mosley's point of view, calling Honda's demise a "wake up call" for the sport.
"The trouble is the teams are basically run by technicians who should probably be at home playing with their PlayStations rather than spending fortunes to win races," Eccelestone said.
The final word in put-downs went to Mosley, though, who dismissed as irrelevant one question about Ecclestone's controversial new medals system. He said: "Imagine we're all on an ocean liner and we're sinking, and people are talking about the colour of wallpaper in their cabin whereas anybody sensible would be looking for a seat on a lifeboat."
How F1 could cut costs
Possible . . .
Ban testing.
Mandatory aerodynamics (no more wind tunnels).
Race only on 10 weekends.
Use a common engine.
Radical . . . Buy second-hand cars. Drive without air conditioning. Use re-treaded tyres. Celebrate with Pomagne instead of champagne. Share designated drivers
source
Posts
