Super Aguri enters administration.

If the Honda was even a half decent car it would have been interesting to see who the bidders would have been ... would love to see Fry's reaction to Honda technology available for sale on the open market!

As it is, they prolly cudnt give their 'secrets' away at this point!

To have just 90 staff and still get an F1 team on the grid, to me, is good going - they must have worked bloody hard, just a shame it's come to an end.

just a thought. honda had put millions into supporting aguri. presumably they would not wish another owner to avail of all their investment, particularly martin leach (ford). maybe this is the reason they pulled the plug. to avoid any chance of another investor availing of appearance money, facilities etc that they fell might be rightfully theirs.

True Rich ... but then I suppose the sale of Torro Rosso is also doomed?
Surely Red Bull wont want to sell the team with the cars design secrets, setup information etc - since so many things will be common between the 2 teams.
So would a buyer be prepared to spend the money just to start with a clean sheet & have to struggle through a few seasons of collecting data?
That huge FIA buy-in bond seems to have fallen away, so if someone is going to start from scratch it could be cheaper to build the infrastructure rather than buy an existing team?

Fair point about STR being for sale - I think the whole flock of pigeons related to these pseudo-B teams are coming home to roost. Seems like a couple of team principles weren't really paying attention when they signed the new Concorde agreement binning customer cars.

I've said elsewhere that the Super Aguri fold-up had wider implications: buying a team to get on the F1 grid is now distinctly unappealing: only a manufacturer (or possibly someone big in a related performance engineering field - Team BAE anyone?) has the resources, and the Max problem has taking the shine off that as a promotional tool. A smaller grid is heading our way.

Adminstration means that the business (in this case Super Aguri) is likely to be saved providing they can find a new investor or consortium of investors. Unlike Robsy I do not believe that actions of Max Mosley will put off buyers, had it being Aguri Suzuki then it would be a more relevant matter. I was going to follow up Robsy's comment by saying EADS but they currently sponsor Force India. I was going to it would be more logical if someone like Oreca-Courage or Dave Richards' Prodrive organisations with proven motorsport records would be worth looking at it, because Richards's was looking at into going going into F1 but was put off by the customer car row, and he has previous experience

Continued

In Formula 1 as team principal of BAR/Honda before Nick Fry took over. But again the issue would be the resources both physical and financial. With Prodrive committed to both the Subaru World Rally team in developing the new Impreza and the full factory Aston Martin programme. So I still think is possible that Super Aguri or a guise of it will return to Formula 1 sometime in the foreseeable future.

this is great, a sensible and measured debate. if all were like this ! anyway, when SA got the entry, it is said that there were 10 other teams trying to get this position (incl prodrive) Where have all these apparently interested teams now vanished to?? not being a collector of facts, can i ask a question? is the SA actually a customer honda car or are they a manufacturer in their own right? if a customer car, maybe this is why there is no interest in saving them

Good debate going here. I believe SA were a customer of Honda - but weren't paying for the chassis (what would you pay for the 06 Honda? ). I've mentioned elsewhere that Prodrive weren't realistic for SAs slot, the whole build-your-chassis argument was what put them off in the first place. Chassis are very demanding, especially around aero: like a lot of 'cost reduction' measures next years reduced aero rules won't have much effect. So anyone coming in to F1 needs their own tunnel (£40m min) and back-up CFD programme (£30-50m). The only companies I can think of out there who might come back to F1 are PSA (Peugeot) or GM (Vauxhaul Opel), but thats not likely, with commitments elsewhere

Killing the customer car option wasnt clever, & Iain - the Mosley affair is definitely a factor in the lack of people queueing up to own a F1 team. I know from 1st hand conversation that at least 2 of the companies that were looking for that 12th team spot wouldnt take it now purely because of the Mosely factor.

Being able to build & sell cars would also open up interest from companies like Lola, Dallara ... plus provide a viable option for companies like Prodrive, Oreca, Embassy, & even the US racing organisations like Penske, Ganassi, Rahal, etc.