Honda pulls out of formula one and leaves Button in limbo

Formula one is bracing itself this morning for confirmation that Honda will close down its formula one team before the start of next season unless a buyer can be found for the operation which employs over 700 people at their factory at Brackley, Northamptonshire.
The news, which will have seismic implications for the sport's future, is expected to be made public this morning in a formal announcement from the Honda corporate headquarters in Tokyo and will leave Jenson Button out of a drive for next season and destroy any prospect of Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton Senna, of graduating to the sport's senior category as the British driver's team-mate.
Button, who won the team's only victory of the contemporary era in Hungary two years ago, will find it difficult to find an opening elsewhere as all the top teams have finalised their drivers for 2009.
Honda's decision will have far-reaching implications for a sport which has all too often considered itself immune from the commercial turbulence of the economic market place, triggering fears that Toyota, who have been competing in formula one at huge expense and with little success since 2002, could follow Honda and quit. The other teams were told of Honda's decision at a meeting of the Formula One Teams' Association in London on Wednesday and the workforce were told last night that they would be on three months' notice as from the start of January.
"They [Honda] have a month to find a buyer, otherwise they are closing the team," one highly placed source quoted the Honda team bosses, Ross Brawn and Nick Fry, as telling a meeting of the Fota. He added that it was no real surprise given the team "were running up costs to a level that were self-evidently unsustainable".
If Honda withdraws, some will conclude that it has vindicated the stance of the FIA president, Max Mosley, who warned earlier this year that the sport was becoming unsustainable in the current economic environment because of the high costs required to compete. The withdrawal will mean only 18 cars on the starting grids in 2009 and could prompt other teams to re-think whether formula one is currently worth the investment.
Honda has consistently under-delivered in terms of hard results in recent years. In 2008 the team finished ninth in the constructors' championship despite having recruited Brawn, the former Ferrari technical director who masterminded five of Michael Schumacher's seven world championships, as team principal.
Brawn had been pinning hopes on gaining a performance advantage in 2009 when new technical regulations, introducing slick tyres and radical aerodynamic changes, would play to Honda's technical strengths. Now it seems that Brawn will be deploying all his skill and negotiating nous to find a potential buyer for the team who can commit to bankrolling the £200m annual cost of running the Honda operation, perhaps using the supply of Ferrari "customer" engines made available by the Force India team's recent decision to switch to Mercedes power next year.
Prior to Button's victory in Budapest Honda had scored two grand prix victories as a constructor, in Mexico with Richie Ginther in 1965 and at Monza with John Surtees two years later. Honda withdrew its team from formula one at the end of 1968, returning in the 1980s to win multiple world championships as an engine supplier to Williams and McLaren, before getting involved again as a constructor when it bought the BAR team in 2006.
Gone but not forgotten


Lotus
Had world championship winning Jim Clark, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti but gradually dwindled away and closed at the end of 1994
Vanwall
Became the first winners of the official manufacturers' world championship 50 years ago. Closed down at the end of that year.
Cooper
Winners of the 1959 and 1960 world championships with Jack Brabham. By the end of the decade, however, they had faded away
BRM
Stormed to victory in 1962 title battle, making Graham Hill the challenger to Jim Clark. But lost pace with technology and withdrew in 1977
Brabham
Founded in 1962 by Jack Brabham, then sold to Bernie Ecclestone in 1972. Won two championships with Nelson Piquet and closed in 1992

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