Not long ago Honda declared their forfeit to Formula 1 racing, ProDrive owner David Richards has revealed he has turned his focus on a potential return to Formula One racing after Subaru announced its withdrawal from the World Rally Championship three days ago.

With Richards allegedly eyeing the purchase of Honda’s F1 team, he told the British newspaper The Sun that this week’s developments “clears the decks and gives me a bit of spare time to think about it.”

“The new structure for F1 from 2010 onwards, with new regulations coming and very significant cost cutting programmes, certainly make it more appealing and far more suitable for a company such as ours,” he added.

[Source: F1-Live]


Subaru Quits Rally Too..

Tokyo, December 16, 2008 – Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), the maker of Subaru automobiles, today announced the withdrawal from the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) at the end of the 2008 season.

FHI has participated in the WRC together with Prodrive, a motorsports and automotive engineering group in the UK, over the past 19 years. Subaru has won three manufacturer’s championship titles and three driver’s championship titles in its history of rally racing.

FHI considers it has achieved its original target in WRC participation. However, while considering positioning the WRC activity in Subaru branding strategy towards the future, our business environment has been dramatically changed due to the quick deterioration of the global economy. In order to optimize the management resources and to strengthen further the Subaru brand, FHI decided to withdraw from WRC activities at the earliest timing

President Mori commented that reaching this decision has been an extremely difficult task, not least with regards to the countless Subaru fans that for many years have cheered the legendary Subaru blue liveried Impreza World Rally Car; “We would like to express our sincere appreciation for our fans’ strong and loyal support worldwide. They will remain an invaluable treasure for us.”

[Source: Zerotohundred]