Honda has said it will endeavour to help former Super Aguri stars Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson find alternative employment in the wake of the collapse of the small Leafield-based outfit prior to this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix.
Super Aguri was formed with Honda's backing at the end of 2005, as a measure to keep Sato in the sport after the Japanese ace was dropped by BAR-Honda in favour of Rubens Barrichello. Both Sato and Davidson have held either test or racing roles with the Japanese manufacturer in the past, and the Brackley-based concern's CEO Nick Fry admitted to international news agency
Reuters that Honda 'will help' the pair 'if we can', adding that 'it's something that we are thinking about'.
“Obviously both drivers have done a super job over a number of years,” he underlined. “If we can help, I'm sure we will, but there's nothing planned at the moment.”
Fry also sought to defend himself against accusations from SAF1 team founder Aguri Suzuki that he had been instrumental in the squad's collapse [see separate story –
click here], after potential takeover offers from both Dubai International Capital – acting through the UK-based Magma Group – and latterly the German Weigl Group AG ultimately came to nought.
“I'd be very interested to hear from the person who thinks we or I have any responsibility for the demise of Super Aguri,” the 51-year-old asserted. It's a business issue.
“I am sorry to see them go, not only from the point-of-view of some of the people there and obviously Anthony and Taku, but also because we put a huge amount of effort into trying to find the appropriate partner.
“The principal effort was Magma DIC (Dubai International Capital), and that got within a hair's breadth of happening. We put a lot of work in and it would have been nice to see it come to fruition.
“I can understand Aguri's emotion. To be fair to him, he'd just announced to the world that he was pulling out of Formula 1 and obviously there are fairly serious financial ramifications for him.
“The fact that he was quite emotional about it is no big surprise, but this is a pure financial issue and some of the things that have been written about being allowed or not [allowed] into the paddock are somewhat irrelevant.”
