Honda yet to find a ‘serious buyer’
The news comes after F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone revealed an offer to help with a proposed management buy-out was rejected by current chief executive Nick Fry and team boss Ross Brawn. Honda surprisingly pulled out of F1 in early December, citing the global economic crisis, with the team immediately put up for sale.
Hopes were high they would be saved, despite the overheads needed to keep a team on the grid, so sparing the 700 jobs – including that of driver Jenson Button – at the team’s Brackley HQ. But the chief executive of Honda Motor Co. has confirmed they are struggling to find their knight in shining armour.
Takeo Fukui said: “There are various offers for the team, but we have not seen any serious buyer yet.
“We find the sale process difficult.”
Fukui’s comments come after a week of frenzied speculation relating to Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
Branson, though, made it clear over the weekend that although he loves F1, any entry would be conditional in terms of costs and the sport becoming more environmentally friendly.
There have also been constant rumours of a management buy-out led by Fry and Brawn, but all within Honda have remained tight-lipped.
Meanwhile, Formula One’s ‘spy saga’ has finally drawn to a close following an agreement made between the legal authorities in Italy and lawyers representing McLaren.
Charges against former McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan and three current senior employees of the Woking-based team have now been dropped on a ‘nolo contendere’ (no contest) basis. However, Coughlan will have to pay €180,000 in exchange for not contesting charges of copyright infringement relating to Ferrari’s data.
Coughlan was the man at the heart of the controversy that led to McLaren being fined around £50million in 2007 by world governing body, the FIA. Engineers Paddy Lowe, Jonathan Neale and Rob Taylor will each have to pay €150,000.
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