On Friday 5th December 2008 Honda announced they were pulling out of Formula 1 due to financial issues. When they pulled out of F1 they must have known they had a quick car for the 2009 season, but due to the financial meltdown, their F1 team was no longer economically viable. However, could they have afforded to keep running the team if they had had sponsors in the previous two seasons?

In 2007 Honda ran without sponsorship on the car; the first time since 1968, that a team ran sponsor-free for an entire season and they continued to run the myearthdreams livery in 2008.

However surely there would have been people queuing up to sponsor a big name like Honda in F1, so why did they not take any sponsorship. Surely if they had got sponsors in 07 & 08 we may have seen Button becoming world champion in a Honda as it was the Honda team who did most of the development on the Brawn car which Jenson won the world championship in at Interlagos last week.

So, Honda may have made one of the greatest sporting and business blunders in the history of F1 as I am sure winning a world championship is profitable for the team.