Chief F1 Fan

Aguri Suzuki is going to head up the new effort coined the "B" squad from Honda using Honda engines, Briegestones and possibly, a works chassis from Honda as well. No word on who will drive (Sato?)

fsttyms1

Interesting!

F-C

I'm all for it, unless this team becomes a distraction for Honda.

srika

Mushimoto tires???

sorry that's the first thing that came to my mind after reading...

Edward'TLS

Since when does Honda have so much money to burn in F1 to support one full team and another as engine supplier ?

kurt_bradley

I'd love to see Sato end up in another Honda. It's the only way it should be. If they need another driver, I'm game. I haven't driven in competition in over a year. I have the itch. Though I left it knowing I'd had fun and never wrecked...I'd take some seat time in an F1 car. Scott Speed, watch your ass. There's another American out there that you've never heard of.

NSX-Tuner

Here's more info:

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Just saw this news on Grandprix.com.
Should be interesting if this really happens ...

Honda announcing new team tomorrow

There will be a press conference at Honda headquarters in Tokyo tomorrow announcing that Aguri Suzuki will enter a Honda second team in next year's Formula 1 World Championship. It is expected that this will confirm the involvement of the Softbank company and that Honda has acquired Menard Engineering Ltd, which owns the old Arrows F1 facility at Leafield.

Robby Gordon, the NASCAR owner-driver, has confirmed to the Winston Salem Journal that Menard, which provides him with his NASCAR engines, is in negotiation with Honda.

Menard Engineering Ltd is in effect, a slimmed-down version of the old TWR company, which was acquired by home-improvements billionaire John Menard in 2003 when Menard and Eddie Cheever, a former TWR driver and longtime associate of former TWR boss Tom Walkinshaw, decided to use the business to improve their efforts in the Indy Racing League.

That relationship did not last long and Menard has since tried to make the company profitable and in August last year announced that it was expanding into military and aerospace activities in alliance with Haverstick Consulting. Menard previously had an automotive design office in Worthing (which was also part of the old TWR empire) but this was closed down in 2004 and staff relocated to Leafield. It remains to be seen what Honda will do with the automotive consultancy side of the business.

Gordon says that any deal with Honda will not be affecting his NASCAR engine supply.
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Super Aguri F1 is go!

It has been confirmed in Tokyo that Aguri Suzuki is the man behind the new Honda team, as we exclusively predicted some weeks ago. The name of the new team will be Super Aguri F1 and the cars will be known as Aguri-Hondas. The team will be headquartered in Tokyo, close to the Honda head office but the factory will be at Leafield, where the company has acquired the Menard Engineering facility, formerly the Arrows F1 factory. There are already 100 people working on the project.

The plan for the new team began as long ago as February but did not really take shape until September. The team will almost certainly be funded by Softbank but the contract is not yet signed.

Bridgestone has offered to supply the team with tyres.

Suzuki says that he is talking to Takuma Sato but did not mention any other drivers, although Anthony Davidson is also believed to be a likely driver.

The plan is for the new team to be officially launched at the end of January.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns15877.html

F-C

So which is it? Is the money coming from Honda or Softbank? I'd venture to guess that Honda is putting in significant mony