F1 » End of the road for Aguri

this is such a shame, although Honda didnt have to put funds in this team kept the Honda name alive last year by actually beating Honda in most races. F1 has also lost 2 great drivers for the rest of this year and as a brit i hope Anthony Davidson finds the race seat he deserves. Equally like Takuma Sato, he's a great driver and i can remember him in British F3 so i hope he gets the race seat he deserves aswell.

This is a sad day for this little team they will be sadly missed.
I sometimes wonder if the "Formula" of F1 has gone as far as it can.
I cannot see why we cannot have a customer class as well maybe some less well
funded teams can run 1 car put more points to be scored for all the drivers.
The BTCC do it I know f1 is not touring cars.
But it would boost the grids.

RIP Super Aguri

In many ways a victim of their own relative success. Would Honda have saved them had they not the potential to outpace their more illustrious countrymen?

I'd sure like to hear what Nick Fry has to say in his defense...

other minnows have been able to survive in the past, albeit under different names, minardi, jordan, jaguar etc. arguri was ill conceived from the outset, with little or no experience as a team. it was only a matter of time before the inevitable. prodrive could have taken an interest but didnt, so they no doubt saw its failings. we might not like the system in formula 1 but only serious players should be involved. re chards comments above, multi car teams is a possibility. look at DTM,only two manufacturers but great racing

Hi Chard and Rich Ard (presumably no relation). The whole 4xMclaren, 4xFerrari issue was what was deliberately killed by the new Concorde, and what stopped Prodrive from coming in, and what will put pay to STR. I'd rather have basic customer chassis with individual team tweaks (which is what SA, STR and Prodrive would have done) and mixed engines, than an out-and-out four or five mfr grid with each fielding three or four cars. Think what that would do for 1st/2nd/3rd driver management, or for occasional quali lock-outs and processional racing. The fact that SA embarassed Honda last year is exactly why we should allow customer chassis.

Hopefully Honda uses the extra funds to infuse it into R&D. If the Japanese team wants Sato so badly RB can be put out to pastures next season and Sato takes his place.

I agree with Robsy. In theory, there are places available for 2 more teams in F1. But with the new Concorde that's raising the cost of entry for potential teams so high, it's unlikely we'll see any new teams coming into F1 in the near future. So much for cost cutting in F1. It'd be great to see VW, Audi, Prodrive/Aston Martin, etc... in F1. It'll be good to see Jaguar in F1 again too. But with things as they are with the FIA, fans can only be disappointed.

While it is understandable that Fry and Honda need to concentrate their efforts on the factory team it is surprising that Fry was so vocal in the press. They really did not want a deal to save SA to go through. I have a feeling Honda may find more people rooting against them than for them.

Obvioulsy something has to change to make F1 more accessable for new teams. Maybe the best thing is to have a few hard years with the loss of a few more teams so the FIA is forced to make type of changes that will encourage the survival of the series.

Just because SA made Honda look bad last year, doesn't mean NF has to stick his oar in. He should shut up and work harder, because obviously SA were doing something right, while Honda wasn't.