Why Honda Pulled Out Of F1

Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry Tells Sky's Enda Brady why the car company has decided not to compete in next year's Formula One championship unless it can find a buyer by the end of the month.

Well ,we told the staff that Honda were pulling out of Formula One last night. Obviously that was a huge shock to them. But this morning let’s give them a huge silly determination to succeed. The staff will be paid for at least in(/) next three months. We have the money to ? to Melbourne. And the staff I’ve just been speaking to are determined we all are gonna get there. And so we had a couple of expressions of interest already in the team, and hopefully, this could be a holy future for us.

We spoke to your team principal Ross brown earlier this morning, and he said this is a top-level F1 business with some extremely talented people, very good drivers and marvelous facilities. It’s just a matter of finding the right person. Who out there has 300 million pounds a year to invest and put into cars on the grid?

Oh, firstly, I should emphasize this is a completely different situation from the other Formula One teams, sort of gone bust in the past. This is a top line facility, possibly the best in Formula One in terms of the facilities, the people are outstanding, and in Ross ? has. He is the best in the world. So, the car, those guys have designed next year is a huge attractive to outside buyers. Formula One is still a great spectacle It’s up there 600 million fans a year watch Formula One. It’s up there with the Olympics. If you have a global product that you want to advertise, it’s still the best, and we gotta remember that. as I said ,we had 2 or 3 global players contact us already, who are interested in a top-level team in Asia. You know, it's gonna be tough, but I think there’s a good reason for hope of the future.

Just looking at the F1 market place right now, will others be looking in ? here at Honda and worrying about themselves now when their backers may be pulling out too?

Clearly, that’s a big worry. And you know, many of the Formula One teams are owned by car manufacturers. As everyone knows, here in the UK, 40 percent reduction in the car buying in the last month. That(/) has huge impacts on, not just Honda, but the other car companies then, and everyone’s gotta cut that close to face. I said with all the other teams owners yesterday, and we reduced the budgets for next year, potentially by, about 50 million Euroes by cutting back testing, thinking about that, cutting back developments. So we are trying to respond very quickly to the economic situation. And hopefully all the Formula One teams are gonna have a secure future. We’ve got to find a way of seeing so through the next couple of years, which, undoubtedly, for everyone, all are gonna be a bit tough.

参考中文翻译：

本田车队CEONick Fry向Sky新闻的Enda Brady透漏，他们将推出明年的F1冠军赛，除非月底之前能找到买主。

昨天晚上，我们向员工宣布本田将退出F1冠军赛，很明显，这对他们震撼很大。但是今天早上我们给了他们一个继续下去的巨大的愚蠢的决心。接下去的至少三个月，公司都会向员工支付工资。我们有钱去墨尔本吗？我刚刚谈话的那些员工坚持我们一定内去。所以我们队伍里也有一些有趣的表现。这对我们来说将是一个神圣的未来。

今天早上稍早时候，我们找你们的车队负责人谈话，他说这是一个一流的F1团队，人们非常有智慧，司机技术非常好，设施也非常好。问题仅仅是要找到一个合适的人。谁能每年拿出3亿英镑来投资到汽车上呢？

首先，我要强调的是，这支队伍的情况和其他F1车队都不同，不可同日而语。这支队伍有着一流的装备，可能是所有F1车队中配备最好的，人员也非常优秀，Ross ? has是世界上最棒的队员。F1仍然是很值得看的比赛，每年有6亿名F1迷观看比赛，几乎可以与奥运会相匹敌。如果你的产品想在全球范围内宣传，F1比赛仍然是最好的选择，我们一定能够记住的。就像我说的，全世界已经有两三个赛车手联系我们，他们对亚洲一流的团队感兴趣。你知道，未来的路是艰难的，但是我想，未来也是充满希望的。

看看现在的F1市场，在他们观看本田的同时，是否也在为自己担忧，他们的支持者会不会也退出呢？

很明显，他们非常担心。你知道，很多F1车队都是由汽车制造商拥有的。大家都知道，现在在美国，上个月汽车销售量减少40%，这不仅对丰田，对其他汽车公司都造成巨大的影响，每个公司都面临着缩减。昨天我对其他车队所有者说，明年将要缩减预算，通过减少测试，减缓发展速度来缩减大约5千万欧元。我们试图尽快对目前的经济形势作出反应。希望所有的F1车队都有一个安全稳定的问来。毫无疑问，接下来的几年，对每个人来说，形势都会比较艰难。