Shocked Button tells staff at Honda to stay positive

End of the road: Jenson Button meets mechanics from the Honda team at their headquarters in Northamptonshire

13 April 2012

Jenson Button today urged workers at Honda's Formula One headquarters to remain positive about the team's future as it emerged that three prospective buyers have shown an interest in taking over the outfit.

The British driver visited the team base in Brackley, Northamptonshire, where some 700 jobs — including his — will be lost if the team doesn't find a buyer.

"It was as much a shock for me as it was for anyone else," Button told mechanics in the workshop.

"The first couple of hours were the most painful, but after that I thought, 'What is the point of being down and trying to look at every reason for it. It's not going to change."'

Button, who is believed to earn around £20million a year, added: "We need to stay positive ourselves and as one team because if we are not, no one will be interested in taking it over."

The team's chief executive Nick Fry claimed today there has already been interest in the company.

He is hopeful new owners will be found and the team will be on the grid for the start of next season in Australia on 29 March.

"In the last 12 hours we've had three serious people come to us and suggest they would like to buy the team, so we're still hoping to be there in Melbourne," he said.

The development of next year's car is already at an advanced stage and Fry believes the team should be seen as a valuable commodity.

"The one thing I would say is that this is a completely different situation from prior F1 teams stopping," he said.

"This team is one of the best funded, has the best assets, the best resources in the pit lane, a fantastic group of people and a car designed by Ross Brawn which is ready to go next year.

"I think we are going to be a desirable asset for somebody."

The public face of F1, commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, is also confident that Honda will find a buyer and said today: "I think it's okay. I think there's a number of people out there that have shown a lot of interest."

But he accepts money is becoming tight in his sport and added that Honda's withdrawal was a wake-up call for F1.

He warned: "Both Max Mosley and myself have been campaigning now for quite a long time to try to reduce the necessity to spend vast amounts of money to be competitive.

"When you consider that Honda have got 700 people working there to put two cars on the starting grid, it's a little bit cranky."

The withdrawal of Honda came as no surprise to Mosley himself and the FIA chief hopes to use the current situation as a spur to teams to accept his cost- cutting proposals.

He said: "I've been expecting one of the major manufacturers to stop. Now it's difficult to imagine how any manufacturer could stay in unless we make substantial reductions in costs."

Mosley's primary suggestion is to offer a standardised engine, made by Cosworth, to all teams from the start of 2010 at a cost of £5.5m per season.

Teams turning down the offer would have the choice of either developing their own new engine — as long as it follows the the Cosworth specifications — or continuing with their engines while observing the existing ban.

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