GENEVA — Leaders of the former Honda Formula One team expressed confidence Thursday that it will race this season, but gave no details about a reported management buyout.
Chief executive Nick Fry talked of challenges facing the team “over the next two or three years” at a meeting of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) in Geneva.
Fry has worked with team principal Ross Brawn to find a buyer for the team after Honda announced in December it was pulling out of F1 as a cost-saving measure.
“It is correct to say that our team has, and will, benefit in the future from FOTA in two ways,” Fry said. “The first one is clearly the cost reductions will help us enormously in the challenges that our team will face over the next two or three years. As important as the cost reduction is the level of support we have enjoyed over the last three months from all the teams.”
Fry said each of Honda’s nine rivals had offered support in the past three months to try to ensure that F1 has 10 teams on the grid when the new season begins in Australia on March 29.
“Everyone on the stage here has helped us preserve our team,” he said. “Myself, Ross and our 700 employees all thank them for that.”
The Times of London reported Friday that the Honda team had been saved by a management buyout and will be on the starting grid for the Australian Grand Prix.
Fry did not comment on the report, but McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said the return of Honda under a new name would be testimony to the work done by FOTA since the teams united last year to face threats posed by the financial downturn.
“We very much want a full grid in Australia,” Whitmarsh said. “If it happens then FOTA should be rightly proud.”
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