According to La Stampa, Honda F1 has a buyer: Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim Helu. Reports claim he paid the single dollar Honda was asking. He trumped Force India F1 owner Vijay Mallya, who was suspected to want the Honda team only for its tech know-how, and Prodrive's Dave Richards.
When Honda announced its immediate departure from F1 on December 4, it gave the outfit 27 days to find a bona fide buyer who would make a credible 3-year commitment to run the team. If the team did find such a purchaser, Honda said it would assist with finances and technical support. Carlos Slim has the finances and the experience: he is reportedly the second richest man in the world, and his companies are already involved in motorsport. If the transaction proves to be true, and assuming the team gets funded properly, it will mean a few good things for the 2009 F1 season: it will add another privateer team to the grid, it will let Ross Brawn continue creating the team he's been dying to lead since he was at Ferrari, and it will return the name "Senna" to the grid. Bruno, Ayrton Senna's nephew, is sponsored by Embratel, a subsidiary of Slim's Telmex company, and will certainly replace Rubens Barrichello as the one flying the Brazilian flag.
Back when Alain Prost ran an F1 team, after jettisoning engines supplied by Mugen-Honda, it was Peugeot that left Jordan to sign up with Prost. Things didn't go well, and Peugeot jumped ship three years later. But it's possible that Peugeot feels it has some unfinished business in F1. Rumor has it that among the folks snooping around Honda's F1 operations is PSA, the parent company of Peugeot/Citroen. Supposedly not as hurt by the downturn as its rivals, and with F1 cost cutting in extra strength mode, PSA thinks now is the time to buy Honda's operations, benefit from Honda's promised assistance, and go head-to-head with its French rival Renault. Were such a thing to pass, speculation is that Peugeot would put Sebastien Bourdais and Jenson Button in the cockpits.
Although it is being built in North Carolina, it will be another couple of years before the HondaJet will undergo U.S. federal aviation certification. But in the meantime, the aircraft launched this week in Europe at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition – held at the same Palexpo that hosts the Geneva Motor Show each year – while the jet undergoes European certification. And who do you think placed the first order? None other than Jenson Button, Honda's star F1 racing driver.
Button – who has (arguably) loyally stood by Honda (formerly known as BAR) for six straight seasons despite the team's dismal performance and in the face of offers from other teams – will take delivery of not one, but two HondaJets when they begin delivery in 2012. In addition to personal use, the scruffy F1 driver will use the jets for his new charter aircraft business. Each new HondaJet can carry five passengers and two crew in groundbreaking (but decidedly un-earth-shaking) silence to 483 mph in all the high-tech luxury expected from the creators of Asimo.
