The biggest bargain in F1 history has expensive strings attached

You can buy Honda for as little as £1. But there is a catch…

It’s a little ironic that anyone can buy Honda, but no one can afford to run it. Even a very rich backer - another major car manufacturer, say - would not want to sink £50m into running costs for next season, nor take on a company with some 700 highly skilled staff; not in the current economic climate. Of course, a new buyer could decide to slash its new workforce and run a skeleton operation.

Honda boss Nick Fry claims that he has been contacted by three “serious” buyers, but we remain scpetical.

Who are these mystery buyers?

Max Mosley outlines single engine supplier option for 2010 season

F1 teams have less than a week to decide whether or not to accept Max Mosley’s option to use Cosworth engines from 2010.

On behalf of the FIA, Herr von Spanky wrote a letter to all of the F1 team principals, advising them of his intention for all teams to use a Cosworth power train. The cost of the package is £1.68m up-front and then £5.49m per season over three years. The price is based on at least four teams taking up the offer.

Teams not wanting to use the standard engine (ie. the likes of Ferrari and McLaren) have “the right to build an engine themselves”, or use a de-tuned version of their current V8s - but they must use a standard transmission supplied by Ricardo Transmissions.

The teams have until December 11 to reply.

Read Max’s letter in full below:

Bernie Ecclestone is determined to scrap the points system. Is he mad?

Wee Bernie is hell-bent on introducing his barmy medals system in 2009, despite the fact that most sane people thinks it’s nonsense.

Maybe the news that his giant wife wants a divorce has addled The Meddler’s brain? Whatever, the current points system works just fine, whereas a new medal system would give all but the fastest teams no chance of glory - the likes of Toro Rosso, Force India and Williams thrive on the hope of scoring a few points at each grand prix. Without that incentive, why should they race?

As for ensuring a more exciting championship, the medals system could see the drivers’ title decided with less than half of the season gone - what’s exciting about that?

We agree wholeheartedly that there needs to be more incentive for drivers to attempt risky overtaking moves - that is the raison d’etre of Bernie’s medal system - but there is a much better way to do it: use a variation on the old points system, when the race winner would get 10 points and the runner-up would only get six (1991-2002).

How about this:

FIA’s plan for single engine supplier looks doomed

Ferrari have threatened to quit F1 if Max Mosley’s plans to introduce a standard engine for all teams get the green light.

“The use of same engines would deprive F1 of its competition and technological development,” Ferrari said in an official statement. “The board reserves the right to consider, together with our partners, our presence in this discipline.”

Surprise, surprise. It was only a matter of time before Ferrari showed its hand. Toyota had previously made a similar threat, and as much as the prospect of saving millions is a factor, the big F1 teams just don’t want a homogenised engine - imagine a Honda engine in a Ferrari, or a Toyota engine in a McLaren? It’s never going to happen, and we said as much a couple of weeks ago.

Geneva showdown goes better than expected

At a meeting in Geneva this week, the FIA and representatives of F1 teams (aka FOTA) agreed to cut costs for smaller teams from next season. FIA prez Max Mosley and Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo said the agreement would produce “significant cost savings for 2009 and 2010″.

Officials from three anonymous F1 teams said that the cost of engines supplied to independent teams will be capped at $13.2m a year. Bargain.

Other key agreements:

• Engine life will be increased from two to three races from 2009

• Manufacturers must be prepared to make 25 engine units available to customer teams, at a cost of €10m

ITV pundit seen as trouble-maker

ITV’s Martin Brundle is one of the sharpest motorsport broadcasters working today, so it’s no surprise that the BBC poached him to be part of its commentary team for 2009. But it’s not only ITV who aren’t happy at Brundle’s transfer. According to The Daily Mail, the FIA is unhappy with the move:

“It is the talk of the F1 paddock that Alan Donnelly, the official representative at races of FIA chairman Max Mosley, has been trying to dissuade BBC executives from employing Brundle, who has been at odds with the governing body since he questioned their handling of last year’s McLaren Spygate affair.”

Brundle has never been afraid to speak out on sensitive topics, and he does have a long relationship with McLaren, but it seems ridiculous that the FIA would view him as a partisan trouble-maker.

FIA boss: still got his spank on

Herr Max von Mosley has admitted that the “spanking hooker orgy scandal” - as we like to call it - has not persuaded him to change his sexual habits. Asked by The Guardian if the scandal will make him shun the dungeony world of S&M, Von Spanky said: “You will never completely lose interest in that sort of thing. You just don’t, to be very honest.”

He also denied, not for the first time, that there was any Nazi element to the sexy party: “The Nazi element - that to me was barking mad. There was never a hint of such a thing.”

Keep on spanking Max - or being spanked, which you seem to prefer. Whatever you choose to do is strictly your own business - and that of the tabloid reporter hidden in your wardrobe.

[The Guardian]

Ferrari and co. won’t like this

The FIA, determined to slash costs by the start of the 2010 F1 season, has invited tenders for a third-party supplier of engines and transmission systems to be used by competitors between 2010-2012.

However, existing teams and engine suppliers could still be allowed to build their own engines, providing they are to the same standardised design specified by the third-party supplier. That’s a crucial compromise - the likes of Ferrari and Honda would never accept being forced to run a team powered by another manufacturer’s engine. Not in a million years. They won’t even be happy to have to copy another manufacturer’s design.

As much as the FIA is talking big, we don’t see this being sorted out in time for 2010, if ever.