Honda to help buyer survive 2009

(GMM) To facilitate a takeover deal, Honda – despite pulling out of formula one with immediate effect – will "help" a buyer of its Brackley based team through the 2009 season.

That was the revelation on Wednesday of FIA president Max Mosley, as he spoke in Monaco at the Motor Sport Forum.

The Japanese carmaker Honda has already offered to assume any of the team's debts, and then pass on the team and its impressive facilities to a buyer for a nominal fee as low as a single British pound.

Mosley confirmed to the Press Association: "If a serious buyer came along then Honda would help to keep it going.

"Any person would then be on their own in 2010, but they would get some help in 2009. That's my understanding," he said in Monte Carlo.

Former BAR chief David Richards earlier this week admitted his interest in the team, but said the "overheads" of such a previously well-funded operation are an obstacle.

But Mosley said Honda's undertaking to help would make buying the team more viable.

"It becomes a reasonable proposition for an entrepreneur, providing he is satisfied we (the FIA) are going to get the costs down in 2010," he added.