Honda pulls out of F1 due to economic slowdown Audi out of Le Mans Series

Published 4:00 am Saturday, December 6, 2008

Formula One, which bills itself as the world’s richest sport and races in some exotic locales, was stung Friday by the withdrawal of the Honda Motor Co., the open-wheel circuit’s biggest-spending owner, which is reeling from the worldwide financial crisis.

“Honda must protect its core business activities and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economies around the globe continue to mount,” said Takeo Fukui, the chief executive of Honda, Japan’s No. 2 automaker, at a news conference in Tokyo. He added, “I offer my sincere apologies to everyone involved.”

Sustaining its two-car race team of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello cost Honda an estimated $217 million in 2008. The price proved too steep amid weak auto sales and a falling yen. Honda’s November sales in the United States fell 32 percent. The team is looking for a new owner before the 2009 season begins in March in Melbourne, Australia.

At Formula One — whose 11 teams spent $1.6 billion during the 2008 season — the recession is pushing the organization to a desperate financial brink. Even before Honda’s decision to get out, the circuit’s governing body, the International Automobile Federation, called its spending figure “unsustainable.”