Honda..one dumb decision after another

[gti5notrkt]

First it was Richard's firing now reneging on a gentlemans agreement to limit testing. Very suprising decision making by Honda seeing the Japanese culture places a high moral value on following through on committments.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/moto...ne/4157915.stm

Based on that alone, I can only wish that BAR has there worst season yet in 05. They deserve nothing less.

Jon.

[BSchneiderFan]

Still not sure Richards was fired. He seemed quite happy to leave.

[Kicking-back]

Richards was not fired.

He was brought in to do a specific task, he did it, and moved on.

The team is now run by Nick Fry - David's right hand man.

If Richards was fired, surely he'd have had to take his colleague with him.

[Glen]

Gascoyne (or any team boss) will have his own angle on this - Toyota obviously feel that their simulations and wind tunnel facilities are good enough to give them an edge and achieve their goals for this year.

Quite honestly, if Ferrari aren't in on the agreement (and it's hard to see how they could be with such a tiny fraction of tyre testing compared to the Michelin teams) then there is no way that the agreement could possibly stick - we were just waiting to see which team would give in first. BAR are clearly deadly serious about trying to win the Championship, and that just isn't going to be possible without full testing. Williams and McLaren will come out of this agreement themselves in due course.

[Gt_R]

Why?

It is not news that Honda isn't in favour of this new agreement. Richard did agree to this agreement, but as far as i'm aware, Honda didn't really support it.

But why single out just Honda. The original agreement was for 10 days testing..but many top teams, realising Ferrari's refusal to accept it, then decided to back down from 10 days and pushed for 24 days instead.

The fact that the 9 teams involved did not consult ALL parties before making such a drastic change already open the possibility of problems in some people not agreeing to it.

I won't be surprised to see this "gentlemen' agreement" collapsing. Not that i promote insane levels of expenditure..but it is not effective and insufficient. And furthermore, what is present so far is not a regulation or rule, but just an agreement among a few solo team owners who insist on doing things in a particular way. No reason why others should be condemned just because they don't share the same view.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by gti5notrkt

Based on that alone, I can only wish that BAR has there worst season yet in 05. They deserve nothing less.

Well '99 will take some beating.

Disagreeing with the limited testing idea hardly makes them despicable. From a practical point of view they will do more testing that the other teams - that will help them in achieving what they think they deserve.

[Knowlesy]

On the subject of Richards whether he was fired or not, I'm beginning to have my doubts over whether he was really so happy to leave. It seems really fishy to me, although I originally thought it was a genuinely honest agreement. It just seemed rather sudden and decisions had been taken by DR that hinted he wasn't expecting to leave at the end of the year. Hmm.....we'll likely never know.

[BootsOntheSide]

My understanding was that Ricahrds (and the Prodrive company as a whole) was brought in to make the team competitive, with a deadline of the end of 2005, before handing more power (and thus public prestige) to Honda. DR achieved this a year early, and left a year early (with a sizable proportion of his expected 2005 salary, for doing nothing in 2005 - maybe the Democrats are in power....)

[Rich R]

i'm not surprised a gentlemans agreement hasn't lasted long in f1, and just because bar are the first one's to break it doesn't mean they will be the last.

[gttouring]

reading Alex Zanardi's book (really good BTW)
F1-echoing DaMatta's recent comments, is really a big play ground for playboys and shading and easily mistrusted and backhanded back stabbing deals.
only honest and good men like Stewart are the rare exception not the rule. so honda pulling this is no surprise, infact why did the "agreement" last as long as it did

[Dog Faced Boy]

Having just found out that Richards is no longer at BAR my first thought is that to lose the man responsible for getting them there reguardless of and jumping or pushing must be a bad thing. But think about it, Honda after all have reached the pinnicles of F1 and many other formula before and I for one am going to trust that they know what they are doing. They are certainly putting their money where their mouth is.
As for them pulling out of the testing agreement they arent the first team and they wont be the last to do such a thing. The only reason the other teams are in it is that they think it will work to their benefit. Even poor old Eddie Jordan would screw everyone over if he had the money to take advantage.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by knowlesy

On the subject of Richards whether he was fired or not, I'm beginning to have my doubts over whether he was really so happy to leave. It seems really fishy to me, although I originally thought it was a genuinely honest agreement. It just seemed rather sudden and decisions had been taken by DR that hinted he wasn't expecting to leave at the end of the year. Hmm.....we'll likely never know.

Ha ha ha.... smell the coffee. DR can spin a good tale but only the naive would buy this one...........

[Gabrio]

Apparently Honda does not want to hear about DR anymore. Does it come from the Button affair ? I don't know.

[Adam43]

or maybe they just find the whole thing tedious. I can see that

Especially in a thread about Honda's decision to not stick to the Interlagos gentleman's agreement on limitting testing.

Richard's signed it, but the departure of him is slightly off topic, let us not let this go like all those other threads that turned into JV threads.

[Glen]

Look at it another way - it is clear that Ferrari aren't in on this agreement, so it follows that every serious contender has to test fully to compete (don't kid yourselves, that's just the way it is). So - McLaren, Williams and probably Renault and Toyota will break the agreement in due course - and they know it... which means that in a funny kind of way BAR are simply behaving honestly by coming clean now. It also means that Toyota either have very exceptional confidence in their new car, or outrageously good simulations technology (or both) - or Gascoyne is simply going for a bit of a PR splash in a two-faced manner, knowing that his own team will test fully eventually anyway, but by that time we will have forgotten all about this outburst.

[Dog Faced Boy]

By pulling out of this agreement they are saving the other front running teams. I imagine Bridgestone will be getting serious testing mileage from Ferrari. If the Michelin teams don't follow suit then what may have been a potential head start for Michelin who can potentially put in more testing miles, will be tured on it's head. It don't matter a jot if you've got the best car on the grid if the other tyre is 3 seconds a lap quicker.
In an ideal world a testing restriction would be great but theres way too much at stake for manufacturers who can earn a fortune from a successful association with F1.