F1 moves on

Amazing day today. Been flat out writing about the Honda withdrawal and where it leaves F1. Took part in the Max Mosley teleconference this afternoon and spoke to many figures within the sport. The main points I've come across are these:

Honda is very serious about selling the team but it will be a streamlined outfit they sell, with no more than 200 employees ( current figure is over 650) and capable of running on £40-50 million per year (current figure more like three times that)

There is no engine supply in the package because next year F1 moves to three race engines and Honda doesn't have enough of these ready yet, so it is likely to be a customer supply of Ferraris and the car will have to be re-optimised around this, which will take a bit of work.

Nick Fry has spoken of three interested parties, Bernie Ecclestone, who is helping to broker the sale, told a colleague that he knows of one serious contender and he has spoken to them today.

Max Mosley wants teams to be able to compete for the championship on a budget of £30-40 million per year, because that way there is likely to be a line of possible entrants. Currently there are two empty team franchises and if no buyer is found for Honda then there will be only 18 cars on the grid in Melbourne. The magic number at which the teams will be asked to provide a third car is 16.

The FOTA meeting yesterday agreed a massive sweep of changes, including a complete ban on testing during the season. This will save around £10 million per team.

Many people feel that the car industry will be completely reshaped in the next 18 months, with mergers and failures and this will affect F1 significantly.

Toyota in Japan said that F1 is not immune to the company's new internal cost cutting board, while the team itself issued a statement saying that it is currently committed to succeeding in F1, which is a very carefully worded piece of prose. Honda's withdrawal gives them an opportunity to quit if they are looking for one, now we will find out of they are looking for one.

Some of the FOTA members believe that there are one and possibly two further teams who will not be on the grid in Melbourne. Others are more optimistic.

Many teams are angry with Honda for pushing up costs in F1 and then leaving the others to sort out the mess.

The FIA's vision for the engine future is a three tier system - either you use a Cosworth engine or you build your own engine to a Cosworth design, or you use your own engine but it will be subject to 'equalisation' to ensure engine parity. This will be the main element of the package which is up for approval at the world council meeting on December 12th.

Essentially what has been going on in the manufacturer era of F1 is an 'arms race' of spending to chase success in F1 and Honda is the first team to crack and say "Enough!" The two key questions are, is this the beginning of the end of the manufacturer era? And can FOTA and the FIA come up with sufficient cost savings to ensure that we still have all the current teams in Melbourne in March and in Abu Dhabi in November?