Button will need to start looking for a new team :runaway
Honda were the lowest-placed of the points-scoring teams in 2008
Honda will quit Formula One on Friday, BBC Sport understands.
The Japanese company hopes to sell its team, which costs £200m a year to run, but is prepared to close the team early in 2009 if no buyer is found.
Sources told BBC Sport the team were “optimistic” they would continue, but no investor had yet been found.
However, according to the Reuters news agency, team bosses Ross Brawn and Nick Fry fear Honda could close the Brackley-based team within weeks.
According to a Reuters source, Brawn and Fry told a meeting of the Formula One Teams’ Association: “They have a month to find a buyer, otherwise they are closing the team.”
Honda appointed Brawn, the man who masterminded seven world titles for Michael Schumacher, as their team principal ahead of the 2008 season.
Britain’s Jenson Button, who drives for the Honda team, will be left unattached for the 2009 season if the team folds - though some places with mid-ranking teams remain.
Honda, who recently cut road vehicle production as a response to the global economic crisis, is expected to make an announcement regarding the team’s future at 0500 GMT on Friday.
A notoriously expensive sport in which to compete, teams have spent recent months in intensive discussions over cost-cutting measures.I am told that for £1 you can now buy the Honda F1 team
Adam Parsons
BBC sports news correspondent
Max Mosley, president of world motorsport governing body the FIA, recently urged teams to find ways to reduce costs.
“Formula One is becoming unsustainable,” said Mosley in July.
“The major manufacturers are currently employing up to 1,000 people to put two cars on the grid. This is clearly unacceptable at a time when all these companies are facing tough market conditions.”
In October, a deal was reached to reduce costs for smaller teams in 2009 and 2010.
However, Honda are considered a major player within Formula One, bankrolling more than 800 staff at the team’s Northamptonshire base with the largest budget in the sport.
“I am told that for £1 you can now buy the Honda F1 team,” said BBC sports news correspondent Adam Parsons.
BBC Radio 5 Live’s F1 commentator, David Croft, said Honda’s withdrawal would have profound implications for the sport as a whole.HONDA IN F1
Honda team created in 2006 after BAR team was taken over
Finished fourth in 2006 constructors’ championship with 86 points, but struggled to eighth in 2007 (six points) and ninth in 2008 (14 points)
Team costs Honda £200m annually with more than 800 staff at Brackley
Honda runs F1 cars with minimal advertising, meaning more funding has to come from Japanese parent company
British driver Jenson Button (above) would lose his place in the sport if the team were to fold
“This has serious implications for F1, not just because there will be only 18 cars on the grid,” said Croft.
"It’s the start of the sport as a whole feeling the pinch. Williams are reported to be in financial difficulties, Toyota are trimming down their budget as well.
“Honda are a car company whose sales have dropped by 41% in the last quarter, they’re closing their Swindon factory for two months at the start of next year, and obviously feeling the pinch on a global scale.”
In November, Honda announced it would build fewer cars in Japan, Europe and the United States to reflect bleak economic prospects in the vehicle manufacturing industry.
It was reported on Thursday that sales of new cars in the UK suffered their biggest monthly drop in 28 years, while carmakers Ford, GM and Chrysler have asked the US Congress for multi-billion dollar loans to guarantee their survival.
The last team to leave Formula One were Honda-backed minnows Super Aguri, who folded for financial reasons in April.
Honda’s own F1 team endured a deeply disappointing 2008 season on the track, earning just 14 points, leaving them the lowest of the nine points-scoring teams.
Button found himself ranked 18th in the drivers’ list, contributing only three points.
Only four drivers, each without a point to their name, ranked below him. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello earned the remaining 11 points.
Honda initially entered F1 as a constructor in the 1960s, withdrawing at the end of 1968.Terribly sad for all concerned. Hopefully some sort of independent team can rise from the ashes
GordonMurray
The company returned to F1 in the 1980s as an engine supplier, then purchased a stake in the BAR team from British American Tobacco in 2004.
Honda bought out British American Tobacco in 2005 to form the Honda team for the 2006 season.
While the team finished fourth in the 2006 constructors’ championship, they have since struggled to make an impact.
The 2009 Formula One season begins on 29 March, in Australia.
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