Ecclestone might be many
a thing, but I highly doubt his working so hard to keep Super Aguri in F1 was an altruistic effort. No, it might be that some of his media arrangements state that this season 22 cars/11 teams will start each race - if not, he's obliged to reimburse for the "missing content". I wonder how the cost of this stacks up to $100M. While Honda GP may not be contractually liable for causing such losses by being instrumental in the affairs of Super Aguri, Bernie will be under no illusions as to the causality of the events and given the opportunity will surely yet extract his pound of flesh from those involved. He's famous for never giving anything for free, after all, and some reputations can only be backed up by solid track records.
Perhaps we'll soon see an effort to get some teams to run three cars. This would be telling with regard to the standing media contracts. In the present situation, without a Concorde agreement even, arranging for this will be exceedingly hard to manage without always treading on someone's interests. The ultimate irony would of course be if Honda was somehow forced to run the Super Aguri cars outside the constructors' points after having already accepted a sizable financial loss for alledgedly not finding a suitable investor! Surely this is doable and would be easier for other teams to swallow than, say, Ferrari and BMW Sauber being made to race third cars, mixing up the front of the pack far more and raising all kinds of questions about points, tactics and such. Of course Honda could chip in to get any willing team to field more cars in competition to themselves ... it wouldn't be that different from bankrolling Super Aguri!
I must say, contrasting startup customer teams with the prospect of three car mega teams, the first option sounds much better. In the grander scheme of things neither option is really appealing though. All in all, it could be that Honda will find that shedding Super Aguri has only put them more squarely in the thick of things. The team, apart from hiring Ross Brawn, has seemed unable to find a way out for a long while now. Doing this requires consulting the king of the jungle and approaching him without bearing substantial gifts after taking away his supper and leaving him hungry is ill advised.
At the beginning, Super Aguri seemed like a foolhardy effort with motivations that didn't translate easily. They soon grew to fulfill a promise that, in a sense, never was. I'm grateful that they did that, it clearly was a unique, beautiful and valuable contribution to Formula One. In a field of so few, even the loss of one is too much. Domo arigato, Super Aguri.
- Login or Register
No account yet? Sign up
