With less than four weeks remaining until this season’s opening round of the F1 Championship in Australia, rumours abound that the management buyout of Honda F1 Racing has gone ahead after rejection of both Richard Branson’s possible bid and Bernie Ecclestone’s offering of $143 million failing, as it now appears that Ross Brawn will lead the team into battle this season under the name of Brawn Racing... As reportedly web domains have been purchased (for humour try searching for brawnracing.com) and Caroline McGrory has been appointed as Secretary, who will be responsible for all legal proceedings of the company, as McGrory is a lawyer and has previously worked for both BAR Honda and Honda F1 Racing.
Interestingly during the USF1 “LUV-Fest” on SPEED, Peter Winsor commented in the extra innings of Wind Tunnel that it would cost Honda $130 million to close the Team, so as the pundits are predicting, look for Honda to remain a silent partner in hopes of repurchasing the team in the future, as it made little sense to pull the plug upon its massive investment...
And like USF1, the Brackley based outfit will run with customer engines, as reportedly Vijay Malia has given his blessing for the Mercedes Benz supply to ross Brawn to go ahead, which seems a tad funny if the Honda links do in fact remain, while USF1 has yet to announce any deals with any FIA approved engine suppliers...
