JULY 23, 2004

BAR and Honda extend partnership

British American Racing and Honda will announce shortly that they have agreed to extend their current partnership in Formula 1 for what is expected to be a period of three more years. The two parties have been negotiating for several months over the details of the deal but the decision to stay together was made some time ago.

It is not expected that Honda will strengthen the partnership with any equity in the team although BAR was hoping to convince the Japanese to do this. This means that Honda is in a position to leave the sport or switch teams much more easily if the necessity arises at some point in the future. The philosophy at Honda is rather different in this respect than some of the other manufacturers involved in F1 although the motivation remains to take the combination to the top.