Honda dropping Jordan?

[Baby Spice]

Honda, engine supplier to both the British American Racing and Jordan Formula 1 teams have given the biggest hint yet that they will drop supply to Jordan next year and focus solely on BAR.

Honda boss Takeo Fukui told Autosport: "We are contracted to Jordan for three years from when we signed last year. Of course, we are reviewing this every year and I cannot deny that we have to rethink the whole situation."

Do you think is it possible, then where should Jordan go?

[Sato san]

Jordan will be in trouble for sure , but will this really happen ? i dont think so . The only way i could see this happening was if
1/ BAR suddenley became a front running team

2/ A top team split with its engine partner and Honda stepped in their place.

[Damon]

There was a rumour flying about a couple of weeks back that Honda were considering pulling the plug before the end of THIS year unless Jordan pull their socks up. The way Honda see it, with BAR they have a team that is going to be for sale come 2006 (cig advertising), thus concentrating on them now will give them first refusal when the sale comes up.

[Sato san]

now that is a good point Damon, yes , i could see that happening .

[av8rirl]

Or will Jordan drop Honda first??? As far as I can see, both are dragging their heels. And I don't think that BAR are any better than Jordan.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by av8rirl
Or will Jordan drop Honda first???

but who would they approach AV? i don't see any of the existing engine suppliers in F1 teaming up with jordan at the moment and as jordan want to progress up the championship table i don't see who could come in and supply them with an engine thats going to be reliable! if jordan were to go that route, they've got to say to their sponsers.........don't expect anything good for a couple of years, and any points we get are a bonus!

[av8rirl]

McLaren return to Honda power and Jordan takes on Mercedes Ilmor? Just a thought.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by av8rirl
McLaren return to Honda power and Jordan takes on Mercedes Ilmor? Just a thought.

don't think honda and mclaren would work somehow,(although having a more "front of the grid" team might be more beneficial to BAR) i couldn't see mclaren teaming up with honda knowing that it's highly likely that in 3 or 4 years time honda would buy out bar and dumping mclaren!!

jordan and merc/illmor sounds good to me though!

[EERO]

Have you people forgotten that MDaimler ?Chrysler owns a large chunk of McLaren? Why oh why would Mercedes EVER drop McLaren to support Jordan. Its a fantasy.

If Honda drops Jordan, as it it increasingly seeming they might. Old EJ is up the effluent creek without the proverbial paddle. Can you say "Asiatech?"

[kmchow]

Since I'm new to the world of F1, how does supplying an extra engine to another team hurt R&D? I thought the engine is fairly separated from the chassis?? Unless Honda has trouble building/maintaining all those engines???

[M Power]

Jordan will lose Honda for sure in the race of backward steps Jordan has won only just from McLaren .
I read peugot may comeback but if that doesn't happen I see Jordan (cosworth/ford) happening. I belive that BAR will be bought by Honda after A##kicking TOYOTA has issued to Honda this year.

[neilap]

In order to to be competitive in F1 I feel Honda needs to be more actively invloved in the team that it supplies. Right now it just gives motors to Jordan. BAR gets a bit more assistance. However, they need to be like Mercedes and BMW are with their respective teams. Whatever their strategy was, it does not seem to be working. I hope they do drop one of these losers and concentrate more of their efforts into the remaining team. Toyota has not done anything special in F1 so far. However they have done the most important thing (except the last race) and that is finish the races. They dont have more pace, not even over an ailing motor. When a car can go fast on the straights and then loses time in the corners it can either be a bad chassis or low downforce. I feel it is a combination.

[neilap]

Since I'm new to the world of F1, how does supplying an extra engine to another team hurt R&D?

I suppose its just the money that is spent on supplying both teams. That extra money could go into building a better chassis. Or hiring better engineers.

[Sato san]

Eddie must be a worried man. , infact seeing him in a inteview at Imola on Sky , he looked so depressed and downhearted . Infact , ive never ever seen him like that before.
i dont see a resonable alternative for his team , if Honda decide to go down the BAR only route .

[Tony_Simpson]

If Honda are serious at winning then they need to be with a team that has a chance. There are only 3 teams at the moment that can with Renault and Sauber being the best of the rest. Unless Honda sponser a team with some big money they will not win anything, and even if they do it will take 3-4 years to get to the front, so what ever they do it will take time, how long do Honda want to be a mid field runner????

[Sato san]

i remember back in 1991 Mansell said he was amazed what resources Honda would pull together to make a engine that would make Senna go faster . At one point , they practically stopped most other development for other series just to get 100% behind Mclaren in research and design to give them a better , faster engine which would keep them head of the Williams Renualt FW14 threat.

now that doesnt sound like the same commitment that we see from Honda in Formual one today .

[Daytona Donald]

not that honda thought it would be easy but after the success they enjoyed in the '80's and '90's do you think they thought it would have been easier than it has? did they ever expect toyota to be where they are now?

[Sato san]

or the pace even that BMW are kepping at the moment , or even Ferrari

[Markules]

I dare say Bernie Ecclestone would probably try to persuade someone to supply EJ with engines. Best bet would probably be Ferrari customer units. Ok, so they're never going to be allowed to win a race as long as there's a Ferrari in the same race (and given the way the Ferraris are atm, that would probably mean there'd be a Ferrari in second if a Jordan was in a race winning position), but all the same, it would give them a guaranteed amount of reliability and power.

Anyway, on the note of Mclaren and Jordan switching engine suppliers, the only way I can see that happening is if Ron Dennis decides the underpowered and unreliable engine he has in the back of his two cars ATM isn't a big enough challenge and wants engines that are even worse.

[f1manoz]

If this rumour is true, EJ will be up s*** creek without an engine, because there will be no-one left to fill the void, and EJ won't be able to afford customer engines, not the way his cars are performing at the moment.

Although Honda are still committed to Jordan for the short term, Jordan are going to have to seriously raise their game if they hope to keep the Honda engines beyond their current contract.

[Markules]

I dare say Bernie will pull some strings here and there to keep Jordan on the grid. They're a popular team with the fans, after all.

Push comes to shove there's always plenty of young rent-a-drivers to fall back on. Perhaps they could tempt Diniz out of retirement

[twig]

i have to say, if next year Jordan are powered by Honda, it would have been because of Takuma Sato, or if Jordan seriously pick up the pace.

[Damon]

They've got to reap some reward for Sato, surely!

[EERO]

Originally posted by kmchow
Since I'm new to the world of F1, how does supplying an extra engine to another team hurt R&D? I thought the engine is fairly separated from the chassis?? Unless Honda has trouble building/maintaining all those engines???

I think thereare two sets of factors. The first is expense as each team can go through upwards of 100 engines per season at several hundred thousand per unit.

In addition, the staff required to run the teams is enourmous and there are a limited number of highly skilled technicians to oversee the engines. The overall quality of the engine department is diluted by being streched too thin. The differences are perhaps negligible, but it can add up to a half second epr lap.

[billyblister]

Did anyone hear about Hamidy's flexing design of the EJ12
This would explain why the car was late and why it was called a new car and then an evolution of the EJ11 around launch time.
Honda will rock in time (With or without Jordan, hopefully with), the are some very intersting stories on www.f1i.com