Why Honda Pulled Out Of F1

Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry Tells Sky's Enda Brady why the car company has decided not to compete in next year's Formula One championship unless it can find a buyer by the end of the month.

Well ,we told the staff that Honda were pulling out of Formula One last night. Obviously that was a huge shock to them. But this morning let’s give them a huge silly determination to succeed. The staff will be paid for at least in(/) next three months. We have the money to ? to Melbourne. And the staff I’ve just been speaking to are determined we all are gonna get there. And so we had a couple of expressions of interest already in the team, and hopefully, this could be a holy future for us.

We spoke to your team principal Ross brown earlier this morning, and he said this is a top-level F1 business with some extremely talented people, very good drivers and marvelous facilities. It’s just a matter of finding the right person. Who out there has 300 million pounds a year to invest and put into cars on the grid?

Oh, firstly, I should emphasize this is a completely different situation from the other Formula One teams, sort of gone bust in the past. This is a top line facility, possibly the best in Formula One in terms of the facilities, the people are outstanding, and in Ross ? has. He is the best in the world. So, the car, those guys have designed next year is a huge attractive to outside buyers. Formula One is still a great spectacle It’s up there 600 million fans a year watch Formula One. It’s up there with the Olympics. If you have a global product that you want to advertise, it’s still the best, and we gotta remember that. as I said ,we had 2 or 3 global players contact us already, who are interested in a top-level team in Asia. You know, it's gonna be tough, but I think there’s a good reason for hope of the future.

Just looking at the F1 market place right now, will others be looking in ? here at Honda and worrying about themselves now when their backers may be pulling out too?

Clearly, that’s a big worry. And you know, many of the Formula One teams are owned by car manufacturers. As everyone knows, here in the UK, 40 percent reduction in the car buying in the last month. That(/) has huge impacts on, not just Honda, but the other car companies then, and everyone’s gotta cut that close to face. I said with all the other teams owners yesterday, and we reduced the budgets for next year, potentially by, about 50 million Euroes by cutting back testing, thinking about that, cutting back developments. So we are trying to respond very quickly to the economic situation. And hopefully all the Formula One teams are gonna have a secure future. We’ve got to find a way of seeing so through the next couple of years, which, undoubtedly, for everyone, all are gonna be a bit tough.

參考中文翻譯：

本田車隊CEONick Fry向Sky新聞的Enda Brady透漏，他們將推出明年的F1冠軍賽，除非月底之前能找到買主。

昨天晚上，我們向員工宣布本田將退出F1冠軍賽，很明顯，這對他們震撼很大。但是今天早上我們給了他們一個繼續下去的巨大的愚蠢的決心。接下去的至少三個月，公司都會向員工支付工資。我們有錢去墨爾本嗎？我剛剛談話的那些員工堅持我們一定內去。所以我們隊伍里也有一些有趣的表現。這對我們來說將是一個神圣的未來。

今天早上稍早時候，我們找你們的車隊負責人談話，他說這是一個一流的F1團隊，人們非常有智慧，司機技術非常好，設施也非常好。問題僅僅是要找到一個合適的人。誰能每年拿出3億英鎊來投資到汽車上呢？

首先，我要強調的是，這支隊伍的情況和其他F1車隊都不同，不可同日而語。這支隊伍有著一流的裝備，可能是所有F1車隊中配備最好的，人員也非常優秀，Ross ? has是世界上最棒的隊員。F1仍然是很值得看的比賽，每年有6億名F1迷觀看比賽，幾乎可以與奧運會相匹敵。如果你的產品想在全球范圍內宣傳，F1比賽仍然是最好的選擇，我們一定能夠記住的。就像我說的，全世界已經有兩三個賽車手聯系我們，他們對亞洲一流的團隊感興趣。你知道，未來的路是艱難的，但是我想，未來也是充滿希望的。

看看現在的F1市場，在他們觀看本田的同時，是否也在為自己擔憂，他們的支持者會不會也退出呢？

很明顯，他們非常擔心。你知道，很多F1車隊都是由汽車制造商擁有的。大家都知道，現在在美國，上個月汽車銷售量減少40%，這不僅對豐田，對其他汽車公司都造成巨大的影響，每個公司都面臨著縮減。昨天我對其他車隊所有者說，明年將要縮減預算，通過減少測試，減緩發展速度來縮減大約5千萬歐元。我們試圖盡快對目前的經濟形勢作出反應。希望所有的F1車隊都有一個安全穩定的問來。毫無疑問，接下來的幾年，對每個人來說，形勢都會比較艱難。