Published December 29, 2008

Billionaire Carlos Slim saves Honda F1 team: report

	Email this article
	Print article
	Feedback

(ROME) Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, the world's second richest man, has rescued the Honda Formula One team, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported last Saturday.

Mr Slim: Said to have rescued the Honda team after the automaker pulled out of F1 due to financial problems

'The saviour has arrived: Carlos Slim, 67 years old, the second richest man in the world,' said the newspaper.

'The news is not official as all the details have yet to be formalised. But two things are certain - the team has been saved and the drivers will be Jenson Button and rookie Bruno Senna in place of Rubens Barrichello.'

Honda, believed to have an annual racing budget of around US$400 million, announced earlier this month that they were pulling out of Formula One as a result of the global financial meltdown.

La Stampa, which did not identify the source of its story, added that Bruno Senna (nephew of former triple world champion Ayrton Senna) is sponsored by Embratel, part of Mr Slim's Telmex group.

Honda first competed in F1 in 1964 and clocked up three Grand Prix wins, including Jenson Button's in Hungary in 2006.

Its engines have also been behind dozens of victories by stars such as Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

The team finished ninth in the constructors championship this season with 14 points.

Veteran driver Barrichello achieved the team's best result with a third-place finish at Silverstone.

Honda Motor also supplied engines and other technical support to Formula One team Super Aguri, which called it quits due to financial problems in May.

Motorsport in Japan had been particularly hit by the recession with Subaru and Suzuki pulling out of the world rally championship.

In another development, Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport reported yesterday that Fernando Alonso has a secret agreement to join Ferrari for four years from 2011.

The twice Formula One world champion has never hidden his desire to go to the Italian team and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo recently fuelled the ongoing speculation by refusing to rule out the Spaniard's future arrival.

The newspaper said the deal had several get-out clauses for both sides but added that Alonso could join Ferrari even earlier, in 2010, if 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen follows this year's disappointing season with another bad campaign. -- AFP, Reuters