Honda 'rules out' more emergency help for F1 team Super Aguri

[Shiba-Kun]

Honda 'rules out' more emergency help for F1 team Super Aguri
4/29/2008


TOKYO (AFP) — Honda will no longer provide emergency financial help to Japan's cash-strapped Formula One team Super Aguri, a report said Tuesday.

Honda, which provides engines and technical support to the team, spent around three million dollars to ensure Super Aguri participated in the Spanish Grand Prix last Sunday, the Sankei Sports daily said.

"We will not provide relief on a race-by-race basis any longer," a Honda official was quoted as saying.

Honda, which has its own Formula One team, and Super Aguri, which owes about 100 million dollars in debt to Honda, were to hold a "final" meeting on the issue on Wednesday, the report added.

Officials from the two companies were not immediately available to comment.

Super Aguri, which has struggled since it was founded in late 2005 by former Japanese racer Aguri Suzuki, suffered a major blow two weeks ago when Britain's Magma Group backed out of plans to acquire it, throwing its future into doubt.

The team is yet to score any points after four races this season.

Its drivers, Briton Anthony Davidson and Japan's Takuma Sato, both failed to finish in the opening race in Australia. Their best result was Sato's 12th place in Barcelona where Davidson retired.

Last year, Super Aguri won just four points in the constructors' championships -- an improvement on their pointless debut season -- to finish second-last.

Suzuki was the inaugural Asian on a F1 podium when he finished third at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix and Super Aguri was part of his long-held ambition to create the first all-Japanese team.

Super Aguri initially had all-Japanese constructors, engine and tyre suppliers, as well as Japanese drivers in Sato and Yuki Ide.

But Ide was stripped of his F1 licence after four races, partly because he was too slow, and was replaced by Frenchman Franck Montagny.