and Davidson's not nursing the engine to last the race too - I wouldn't be surprised if he has an extra 300 revs to play with during practice

 

This was LAST year were talking about not this years and its stupid engine rules.

 

chatting to my japanese mates today..

they think this is the 2 possible scenarios that Button has created..seems like the deal with BAR did not go down to well in Japan..


Scenario 1)
Midland Toyota - Toyota is interested in Honda's Sato - since Toyota can utilize him a lot in promotional things in Japan... many Japanese fans are thinking Honda betrayed Sato

Scenario 2)
Williams - Honda believed Sato was staying - but BAR (Fry) gave Jenson the big money to buy his contract from Williams (by loaning against his future BAR contract) - apparently without agreeing this with Honda. Honda is upset and trying to keep Sato. The way would be to provide a Honda engine to Williams from 2007 - with Sato team mates with Roseberg Jr.. with Webber being ditched..

 

I am not sure that Fry can buy Jenson out of his Williams contract without Honda being interested/stakeholder in this. Honda having a 45 % stake is a pretty big deal

just my 2p

rob

 

I think the Japanese fans should be more realistic - F1 is a very tough sport, and there have been plenty of much better drivers than Sato who have lost their seats before, and look at the Brits who struggle - Justin Wilson, Anthony Davidson to name 2 recent examples.

Sato has had maybe 2 or 3 races where he has been impressive and not crashed into anyone, but the rest of the time he has generally been outqualified and out-raced by Button.

He doesn't score points, as a result of which BAR now find themselves in a very lowly championship position this year, which loses them a lot of money and prestige.

BAR would have been completely and utterly stupid to keep him, and that should be plain for anyone to see, including Sato's own countrymen.

 

Perhaps Honda have not been watching the news these past few months and this is all a big surprise to them?? no I thought not.

Honda are a business and - whilst they'd love to have a Japanese driver in the squad - they're in F1 purely for the extra money it'll bring their way.

With their 45% share in the team, if they'd really wanted Sato to stay he would have stayed. If they were than fussed about it the should have negotiated something into the contract.

If the Japanese GP wasn't next I don't suppose the BAR publicity machine would be making such a fuss of it

 

this is the western view of a Japanese company..

this is not exactly how it works over there, profit is not necessarily the benchmark of success as it is in Europe/North America..

relationships are built up over long term - through the good/bad... and Japanese people see that with Sato/Honda - that this was a long term relationship which was broken in a very harsh way... (in their opinion of course)

don't forget, other teams have sometimes screwed up good relations with Japanese companies, Williams dropped the ball with Canon many years ago...

 

well, there you go..

HONDA buyout BAR, looks like they were not satisfied with the "influence & control" they were getting with the previous arrangement.. I wonder how long some of the BAR team will stay...Fry et al..

 

I appreciate it may be a western viewpoint, but Honda ARE a multinational business. I can see them having core business values which are very strongly linked to Japanese business culture, but at the same time, in order to compete on a global scale, they have to play the game - sometimes at the expense of some of those principles.

I honestly cannot see Honda running Sato and Davidson as a team (for example) and scoring a handful of points over a season just because Sato is a local talent. They need the balance of local interest (Button in a British team for example) combined with the best chance of winning races possible.

Now they are in control I expect a lot of folks at BAR will be wondering how water tight their contracts are for the next year..

 

http://www.barhondaf1.com/en/index.php?sec...tem=1333&type=1