On the day I manage to get back online, I notice a rumor that Peugeot-Citroen may be interested in buying the Honda F1 team. As an old Citroen man, thanks to an AX14TZS I owned for many years a while back, I would love to see the "other" French manufacturer back in F1.
Hopefully, the group would use the Citroen badge, Peugeot no doubt still smarting from their previous foray into the sport and involved in Le Mans racing at the moment. Citroen has had an impressive run in various rallying ventures and might be ready for a new challenge.
I particularly like the suggested driver line-up for such a team: Jenson Button and Sebastien Bourdais. Jenson has more or less pledged to stick with the outfit and has earned another year after surviving the disaster of the last two seasons. And I am sure we all want Bourdais to have a drive next year so that he can show us how good he is when things go right. Toro Rosso look increasingly likely to drop him in favor of a pay driver so a move to a Honda/Citroen team would be exactly what he needs.
Of course, it is only a rumor and so could easily disappear with the morning mists. This one makes sense in so many ways, however, that there may be some substance to it. Most importantly from the fans' point of view, it would keep a team in the sport at a moment when confidence in the future has been shaken.
In fact, Honda's chosen time to withdraw looks increasingly ill-judged as matters develop. The team was promising to be a lot more competitive in 2009 and the FOTA/FIA agreement on cost-cutting is a good start on making the sport more affordable. Although the huge drop in car sales in the States is cited as the reason for Honda's withdrawal, this may not be as drastic or long-lasting a downturn as initially thought; gasoline prices in America have been so high as to discourage new car buying but prices have recently dropped again. If the market recovers quickly, Honda's decision may look rather hasty and unnecessary.
So I am hoping that PSA will indeed buy the team. The possibility introduces a ray of light into a situation that has looked very gloomy of late and F1 could do with an influx of a new force.