While we knew Formula 1 racing was an expensive venture, leave it to the 2008/2009 edition of Formula Money to spell-out the jaw-dropping finances for us. According to their latest guide, the supporting cast will shell out over $3 billion this year in team resources -- with Toyota dropping more than $445 million of it alone. McLaren is a close second at $433 million, while Ferrari rounds out the top three with $414 million coming out of pocket. If you take a look at team resources divided by points scored, each point cost Ferrari $1.9 million in 2007 (while each point cost Honda a staggering $57.2 million during the same period!). With the financial markets around the world roiled in turmoil, many are wondering when the F1 budgets are going to feel the pinch...
Yesterday we reported that Danica Patrick would test with the Honda F1 team at the end of the season. That report was a false start: Honda F1 CEO Nick Fry said there was no arrangement for Danica to test, and that she and the team have had no contact. However, Fry did say that if she wanted to test, they "would be more than happy to speak to her about it." The original source for the Danica-will-be-testing article was an Austrian newspaper interview with the same Nick Fry, which even included a time frame for the test. Something was apparently lost in translation.
Everybody's favorite racing driver has been getting a lot of attention since claiming her "maiden" victory in the IRL race at Motegi in Japan two weeks ago. Now officials are considering giving Danica Patrick a shot at test driving a Formula One car.
Patrick has had a checkered past with F1 prospects. She was initially offered a chance to demonstrate an F1 car at Indy in 2005, but declined saying it was just for show. Around the same time, she was shocked by Bernie Ecclestone, who compared her to a kitchen appliance. Since her Motegi win, however, the international motorsport community has been abuzz about the prospect. Honda, which supplies the engine in Danica's IndyCar (and everyone else's, for that matter) says it will seriously consider giving Patrick a shot at testing for its F1 team. While some debate whether a woman has the physical strength to drive an F1 car, Patrick says she wants to focus on contending for the IRL championship before she considers a possible step up to Formula One.
Imagine getting a contract with a major F1 team before you're even out of high school. That's what Lewis Hamilton got with McLaren when he was young(er), and what karting protégé Will Stevens has achieved with the Honda Racing F1 Team, reflecting a growing trend in motorsport recruitment. While team leaders have always kept an eye on feeder series like Formula 3 and, more recently, GP2, to scout up-and-coming talent, the rising level of competition has driven the teams to start earlier and earlier with their recruitment programs.
At 16 years old, Stevens has the FIA-CIK KF2 European and Asia-Pacific, International Open Masters KF2, WSK Junior ICA and MSA British Junior titles to his name, along with five national championships. He met over the weekend with Honda's Ross Brawn and Nick Fry to sign a long-term driver support agreement that will help him develop and advance through the ranks until he's ready to race in Formula One, giving David Coulthard a heads-up on the next little pischer to complain about.
Honda has a long history in grand prix racing. The sport's first Japanese team debuted with its own home-grown chassis and engine in 1964, taking its first victory in only its second year in Formula One at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. The original RA271 was replaced by the RA300 at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which John Surtees won on its maiden race. Honda withdrew from Formula One in 1969, supplied engines to various teams between 1983 and 1992 and again with British American Racing in 2000, which Honda had adopted as its own factory team by 2005 before winning the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Keen to highlight its rich heritage in Formula One, Honda came to the Geneva Motor Show with and old RA300 and its latest successor, the RA108. Compared to the 3-liter 420-hp V12 and 5-speed manual in the vintage RA300, the new RA108 is driven through a seven-speed sequential gearbox by a 2.4-liter V8 producing over 700 hp.
Let's get this straight: we are fans of the Honda F1 team. As cynical as everyone else makes the friends-of-the-earth thing out to be, Honda has put its paint where its money is by excluding sponsors logos from the car. Honda's problem, though, hasn't been its sentiment -- it's been the fact that the Honda team has only won one F1 race, a wet and wild affair in Hungary in 2006.
The team's biggest move in the off-season was to put former Ferrari strategy master Ross Brawn team principal (shown above). In an additional bid to show people they're serious, keep folks at the team, and get everyone on board to win, they're offering everyone on staff -- all the way down to the Brackley factory cleaners -- a bonus of $2,000 for a win. Each win would cost the company more than $1.5 million, a price we're sure they'd be happy to pay for constructor's points, publicity, and the collective sigh of relief that would come with it. The question is, with a 2008 car that is already being described as slow, while Ferrari is breaking the pole lap records at Bahrain... when is an incentive not really an incentive?
Honda Racing is the latest F1 team to officially unveil its new grand prix car with which it will be contesting the 2008 Formula One World Championship. While race drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello have been shaking down the new RA108 at official test sessions, Honda left it to its new test driver Alex Wurz to unveil the car in Brackley, UK, at one of the team's three main facilities.
Although like its competitors the Honda RA108 is the culmination of many months of development, it benefits from the vast technical experience of the team's new principal Ross Brawn, former technical director at Ferrari. Brawn points out that the development of the RA108 focused on aerodynamic flexibility that will allow Honda to optimize the car's performance with a constantly-evolving aerodynamic package. In keeping with the FIA's freeze on engine development, the RA808E engine remains largely unchanged, adapting only to the new standardized engine control module while getting a new exhaust system, airbox and transmission.
Not to focus on style over substance, the unveiling also showcased the RA108's new livery, which promotes the renewed "earthdreams" campaign. Evolving from last year's "myearthdream" project, the new campagin has Honda and its sponsors pledging $1.2 million towards environmental awareness. While last year's car was covered entirely with a global motif, this year's livery appears considerably more sporting, with globe-pattern racing stripes and numbers covering the traditional Japanese racing white.
