Amidst all the excitement over Alonso's return to Renault and speculation regarding Kovalainen's dwindling options as a result, a little item regarding the threat to Super Aguri's existence caught my eye. After a season in which the little Japanese team became everyone's favorite, it is sad indeed that it may not make the grid in 2008.
Super Aguri SA05
Although Super Aguri drew similar emotions from us to those once elicited by Minardi, the teams were very different apart from their plucky underdog status. Minardi were the great survivors, hanging on to F1 by their fingernails and through sheer Italian passion for racing; SA attained their status more through beating their parent team than anything else. It was not that long ago that the Honda 'B' team was a figure of fun, running an outdated Arrows chassis and struggling to keep up with the rest. The greatest surprise was that they managed to close the gap and scored a point in the last race of 2006.
Their better form this year was not entirely unexpected, running a proven Honda chassis as they were - but that they should beat the factory team's awful car was so ironic that we began to urge them on to greater achievements. Their fading towards the end of the season was the inevitable result of money problems.
Now it seems that Honda may not fund their 'B' team any longer. The desertion of SA's main sponsor mid-season meant that the parent company had to shoulder the bulk of the burden of keeping SA going and this, coupled perhaps with the embarrassment of Honda's performance relative to their junior team, has meant that the board must discuss the continuing existence of their second F1 team.
It was an unusual project from the start, intended primarily as a way of keeping the popular Takuma Sato in F1 while the factory team got serious with a pair of highly-rated drivers. That Super Aguri met with some success was unexpected, no doubt, but quite pleasant for Honda while their primary effort brought them a win in Hungary in 2006. When the costs increased with SS United reneging on sponsorship payment, however, it became less attractive to have an extra team drawing money from the company. I suspect that Super Aguri will be lucky to survive the board's discussions over the winter.
The usual answer to such a problem would be to sell the team to new owners and there has been some interest from prospective buyers during the summer. It is getting late for such a transfer to occur, however, and the problems associated with customer cars might hinder any sale. Presumably, any buyer would still have to run Honda chassis next year, either 2006 or 2007 versions, but this time without assistance from the factory. That cannot be an enticing prospect for a new owner, a two-year old car at the end of its development or a design that resisted all attempts to make it competitive.
So it may be that the grid will be one more team short when it assembles again at the Australian GP in March next year. Is that a taste of the future for the sport - dwindling grids as the small teams are forced out? Even if it is just a blip on the graph, it is worrying that the field, so recently expected to comprise twelve teams in 2008, might instead have only ten.
We may have hopes that other manufacturers could fill the gaps, VW/Audi perhaps, Hyundai and/or Nissan, but these are pipedreams as yet and unlikely at best. The message to the FIA and the remaining teams is that they need to sort out the mess regarding customer cars pretty quickly. There are teams in other formulae that would love to give F1 a go if their entrance were made a little easier. Now is the moment to address the problem, not next year or the year after when it may be too late.
Super Aguri SA05
Although Super Aguri drew similar emotions from us to those once elicited by Minardi, the teams were very different apart from their plucky underdog status. Minardi were the great survivors, hanging on to F1 by their fingernails and through sheer Italian passion for racing; SA attained their status more through beating their parent team than anything else. It was not that long ago that the Honda 'B' team was a figure of fun, running an outdated Arrows chassis and struggling to keep up with the rest. The greatest surprise was that they managed to close the gap and scored a point in the last race of 2006.
Their better form this year was not entirely unexpected, running a proven Honda chassis as they were - but that they should beat the factory team's awful car was so ironic that we began to urge them on to greater achievements. Their fading towards the end of the season was the inevitable result of money problems.
Now it seems that Honda may not fund their 'B' team any longer. The desertion of SA's main sponsor mid-season meant that the parent company had to shoulder the bulk of the burden of keeping SA going and this, coupled perhaps with the embarrassment of Honda's performance relative to their junior team, has meant that the board must discuss the continuing existence of their second F1 team.
It was an unusual project from the start, intended primarily as a way of keeping the popular Takuma Sato in F1 while the factory team got serious with a pair of highly-rated drivers. That Super Aguri met with some success was unexpected, no doubt, but quite pleasant for Honda while their primary effort brought them a win in Hungary in 2006. When the costs increased with SS United reneging on sponsorship payment, however, it became less attractive to have an extra team drawing money from the company. I suspect that Super Aguri will be lucky to survive the board's discussions over the winter.
The usual answer to such a problem would be to sell the team to new owners and there has been some interest from prospective buyers during the summer. It is getting late for such a transfer to occur, however, and the problems associated with customer cars might hinder any sale. Presumably, any buyer would still have to run Honda chassis next year, either 2006 or 2007 versions, but this time without assistance from the factory. That cannot be an enticing prospect for a new owner, a two-year old car at the end of its development or a design that resisted all attempts to make it competitive.
So it may be that the grid will be one more team short when it assembles again at the Australian GP in March next year. Is that a taste of the future for the sport - dwindling grids as the small teams are forced out? Even if it is just a blip on the graph, it is worrying that the field, so recently expected to comprise twelve teams in 2008, might instead have only ten.
We may have hopes that other manufacturers could fill the gaps, VW/Audi perhaps, Hyundai and/or Nissan, but these are pipedreams as yet and unlikely at best. The message to the FIA and the remaining teams is that they need to sort out the mess regarding customer cars pretty quickly. There are teams in other formulae that would love to give F1 a go if their entrance were made a little easier. Now is the moment to address the problem, not next year or the year after when it may be too late.