Honda to drop BAR link?

Unlike the relationship between BMW and Sauber, there appears to be no room for sentimentality at Honda following its take-over of the BAR team, whose name appears destined to disappear from Formula One next season.

Although no official title has been forthcoming from the Japanese giant, BAR chief executive Nick Fry appeared to be giving a major hint as to the rebranding when he used slides bearing the name 'Honda Racing F1 team' during a presentation at the Global Motorsports Congress in Frankfurt. Honda has already confirmed that it wants to be more prominent in the identity of the new-look team.

"Maybe, maybe - was that really up there?" was Fry's evasive response when quizzed on the matter.

Likewise, no firm livery ideas have been publicised by Honda ahead of the resumption of testing in a week's time, but grandprix.com suggests that the team's interim cars could appear in a slightly modified version of this year's paint scheme, with red-and-white taking over as the prominent colours, without the corporate olive and black additions featured on the 006 and 007 models. The colours, if correct, would hark back to previous Honda 'works' entries, which raced in national colours rather than those of a sponsor.