BAR V Jordan - What Should Honda Have Done?

[Mr V]

Originally posted by DNQ
Jag/Stewert was still a privateer team;

Jag/Stewart were never a privateer team When it was Stewart, the team may have carried the great mans name, and he may have been it's principal, but the were a factory team, started at the request of, and with the backing of Ford.

[BootsOntheSide]

Jackie Stewart was keen to start up an F1 team, and supposedly explored a number of funding avenues, but Ford heavily backed the team from day one, and it was little surprise when they bought the team out and discarded Jackie and Paul.

Sauber were also heavily backed, by Mercedes, when tehy started up. Eddie Jordan is really the last truly independant team boss to come in and succeed, although Simtek had most of the right ingredients other than luck.

[Fish_Flake]

Jordan's success in 1998 and 1999 can be accredited to the fact that they had a better engine than most of the field, save the Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz. Williams and Benetton, who would usually be tallying victories, suffered a huge blow when Renault withdrew factory support after 1997, and by 1999 were basically using 2-year-old Renault engines that were hopelessly uncompetitive compared to what McLaren and Ferrari were using. Sauber was still Sauber, Stewart was only in its third season, Prost, Minardi, and Arrows didn't have anything to brag about in the engine department, and BAR was running the same 2-year-old Renaults Williams and Benetton were using. That left the Honda-badged Mugens Jordan had to fill in the void, which it did well. In 2000, BMW, Renault, and Honda all decided to show up again, and Jordan started to fall back down the grid. Honda decided rather than risk putting all their eggs into this shambles of a BAR program, they would build factory engines for the team that just finished third in the WCC for some insurance. Unfortunately, the recession happened, and all of Jordan's sponsors backed out. By 2002, BAR was the safer bet.

[Thorstone]

For Honda to progress it's better concentrate on one team only.I think they will buy BAR before start of the 2005 season

[Redlake27]

There is great potential in BAR. If in a couple of years Honda take overall control of the team after BAT pull out, and sign a true megastar to partner whoever comes out best of the Sato/Button partnership they could, just maybe, be the next big thing.

Jordan - no way. They had their moment in the sun, as did Ligier in 79-81, Tyrrell in 70-73, and Wolf in 77. It happens from time to time, but history shows you need funding and commitment to win over a longer period