Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has made a bid for the Honda Formula 1 team, according to a
report that hit the newswires this morning.
Virgin has yet to comment on the report, but Reuters claims its story has been confirmed by an unnamed source close to Honda in Japan.
If true, the latest revelation looks to be a spanner in works for rival buy-out plans proposed by existing Honda F1 team management – led by Nick Fry, Ross Brawn and three other senior executives.
Virgin Group first dabbled in F1 in 2002 when Virgin Mobile sponsored Team Jordan, and Virgin Atlantic Japan have a long-standing commercial relationship with Takuma Sato, the Japanese Former F1 driver who also has strong links with Honda. Additionally, Richard Branson is said to be a friend and business associate of Adrian Reynard, the original co-founder of the BAR (Honda) team, although Reuters says its source doesn’t know if Reynard is involved in any possible Virgin takeover.
With the new F1 season due to start in a little over a month, the pressure is on Honda to take an early decision on the future of its Brackley-based F1 outfit.
With Jenson Button still ready to start for the Honda team at Melbourne in March, any involvement from Virgin could reap PR dividends for the self-proclaimed ‘British national flag carrier’.