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Honda F1 – The interested parties – Richards, Slim, Mallya and others

Posted on December 22, 2008 by F1Wolf

Prodrive - They gave up on 2008 entry, will they make it in 2009 ?

Many different parties have already been connected with the purchase of Honda F1 Racing. Some names were making some sense, some were just rubbish stories. But Nick Fry seems to be confident the buyer will be found:

“We have had a high level of interest in the team since Honda Motor Co. announced their withdrawal from Formula One. Since that time, Ross (Brawn) and I have been engaged in ongoing discussions with several serious potential new owners who have expressed an interest in purchasing the team. Work on the development and build of our 2009 car continues during the next few weeks to ensure that our objective of being on the grid at Melbourne at the end of March will be achieved.”

Some insight into how the search is going was expected early in January but bits of information made it to the medias yesterday already.

Not surprisingly the most serious candidate is the one connected with the Honda purchase from the very moment Honda pulled the plug on its F1 team – David Richards. The reports on Sunday suggest that he travelled to Middle East for talks with his backers :

“There are a group of people in the Middle East who want to support a Formula One entry for me and have been very specific about it for a year now. But we have to agree when the timing is right.”

The question obviously is, if the timing is right.

“When you sit down in the cold light of day and realise the liability you would be taking on, and the huge restructuring of staff and resources that will be needed, investors will have to think long and hard before taking a punt. You will have to bridge a big gap in finance, probably for three years, before balancing the accounts. The big question remains: Is it too big a challenge at this moment in time? That’s what I need to determine.”

This very much confirms at least the fact that David Richards and Prodrive are looking into the Honda purchase.I am not sure how happy would Nick Fry be should the Prodrive deal work out. Fry is the one who pushed Richards out of the BAR Honda team following their (most) successful 2004 season …

While David Richards interest in Honda F1 team is no surprise, I really do not know what to think about the 2 other suitors mentioned by usually reliable Autosport website (quoting Daily Mail as source) – Greek shipping tycoon Achilleas Kallakis and Force India boss Vijay Mallya. Unlike Autosport story however the original Daily Mail article suggests that the rescue plan that involved also Vijay Mallya reached an impasse. But still, why would Vijay Mallya even want to get involved with another team ? One Force is not enough ? Can’t he remember that following his purchase of Spyker he stopped sponsoring Toyota ? And that sure was much smaller side business than purchase of another team would be … Makes no sense.

At the same time The Sun reports that another serious candidate is Mexican billionaire and allegedly the 2nd richest person in the world Carlos Slim. His takeover could be good news for Bruno Senna, as he is sponsored by one of Slim’s companies – Embratel. I am not sure how reliable The Sun is …

In the meantime both 2006-2008 Honda drivers pin their 2009 F1 hopes on their current team. But while Button has received some supportive words from his current bosses and also from David Richards I haven’t spotted much support for Barrichello from anyone yet…

Photo: Prodrive

Discussion: 18 Comments

18 Responses to “Honda F1 – The interested parties – Richards, Slim, Mallya and others”

Dank

- 22nd Dec, 08 05:12pm

Apparently funding from Kuwait might be a bit tight as Investment Dar is struggling in these economic times.

According to Grandprix.com the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group might be looking to invest and boost their profile on a worldwide scale.

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- F1Wolf (author comment)
  
  - 22nd Dec, 08 05:12pm
  
  GrandPrix.com were also the first ones talking about Peugeot Citroen I simply can’t see how any car maker could justify entering F1 these days. but who knows, the business decisions sometime defy any logic
  
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  - me
    
    - 23rd Dec, 08 01:12am
    
    any idea how richards thinks he can balance the books after three years?
    
    Reply to this comment
    - F1Wolf (author comment)
      
      - 23rd Dec, 08 01:12am
      
      By that time he will recover form 1 year of having to pay Button’s current salary
      
      Reply to this comment
Jose Arellano

- 23rd Dec, 08 02:12am

i hope carlos slim buys it!. he already sponspors a lot of mexican drivers in championships around the world. have you seen cars with TELMEX logo on it. (british f3, World series by renault, formula bmw. etc. etc..) he likes racing thats a fact….

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Christine

- 23rd Dec, 08 05:12am

I don’t see Mallya buying it. Hard enough running one team, and Red Bull have proven that it’s not simply a matter of throwing money at the problem.

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- F1Wolf (author comment)
  
  - 23rd Dec, 08 09:12am
  
  that was exactly my question … why would he want second team at the time when mateschitz is trying to get rid of one of his
  
  Reply to this comment
zblkhwk

- 24th Dec, 08 05:12am

I heard a rumor over the weekend that the team was for sale for $1 with stipulations requiring them to race for a period of time. Anybody else hear anything?

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- F1Wolf (author comment)
  
  - 24th Dec, 08 09:12am
  
  yes, Honda is willing to offload the team and all te faciltieas for a dollar or pound or euro as long as someoneone picks up the bill for running the team. recently Mosley said that Honda may even continue to support the new buyer during 2009 season to help the new owners to get through the first year
  
  Reply to this comment
zblkhwk

- 25th Dec, 08 01:12pm

That would seem to be an easy sale for anyone wanting to enter F1.

Reply to this comment
- F1Wolf (author comment)
  
  - 25th Dec, 08 01:12pm
  
  yes, but the new owners would still have to come up with at least some $100 million a year to keep the team afloat and reasonably competitive. and Honda had almost no sponsors – there were some – Seiko, Eneos, Ray Ban, but without any branding car I do not think they paid that much sponsorship money. so, still steep hill to climb for new owners, but yes, a golden opportunity for anyone with F1 plans …
  
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Vol Cars

- 26th Dec, 08 08:12pm

Mallya thinks that it might be just like an acquisition of a company and things will be taken care of by the BOD’s. He might have already realized that running an F1 team is not a cake-walk. I don’t there ll be any deal taking place…

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Nieuwe

- 28th Dec, 08 10:12am

Lol maybe Skoda will enter a team

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F1Wolf (author comment)

- 28th Dec, 08 01:12pm

that will not happen, ever but there were rumours about Skoda F1 way back in 2002 when Arrows went bust and VW were rumoured to be one of the potential buyers. did not happen then, will not happen in the future

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The Pitstop - F1 Memorabilia

- 3rd Jan, 09 08:01pm

Lets hope Honda find a buyer soon, as it won’t be the same without Jenson Button on the grid in 2009
We will only have 1 british driver if Jenson dosen’t get a drive for 2009

http://www.f1memorabilia.net

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