Essential Reading for December 5th, 2008

Recommended links for December 5th, 2008:

• Brawn convinced 2009 car would be front-runner – "It is such a fantastic opportunity for somebody who wants to get involved with Formula 1. You won’t find the infrastructure we have here, the quality of people we have here, the facilities we have here and the fact that I believe we have got a front-running car already designed."

  "If we can find that owner, if we can find that investor then they won’t get a better opportunity than this."

• Business fears over Honda F1 sale – Business leaders in Northamptonshire have warned the impact of Honda's decision to sell its Formula One team could extend beyond 1,000 job losses.

  "Any large company is going to have a supply chain and the supply chain tends to be made up of smaller businesses. It's the impact on them that will be felt more acutely."

• Fry gives details of Honda plans – "In the last 12 hours we've had three serious people come to us and suggest they would like to buy the team," Fry says. "This is a completely different situation from prior Formula 1 teams stopping. This team is one of the best funded, has the best assets, the best resources in the pit lane, a fantastic group of people, and a car designed by Ross Brawn, who has won many World Championships, and is ready to go next year."

  "I think we are going to be a desirable asset for somebody. We are very hopeful that this team is going to take a big step upwards, so it is a big opportunity for somebody. This is all to do with the financial situation in the world, and as you know all the motor companies are being struck very hard by falling sales. Clearly more success on the track would have been nice, but this is a much-bigger-picture issue."

• Others may follow Honda – Mosley – "The teams who met are all subsidiaries of these big companies and they could get a fax in the morning saying: 'We're stopping this, which is effectively what happened with Honda.

  "So if they don't wake up to it now, they'll probably get a nasty shock in the future.

  "But our job is to take action to make sure that won't happen. That's why we've sent out a letter to the teams this morning setting out or plans to get the costs right down."

• Ecclestone says F1 will survive crisis – "Everyone has been working like crazy to reduce the necessity to spend to be competitive. Even yesterday there was a meeting of the technical people to change the regulations in order for this to take place, and I have no doubt that there would have been a drastic reduction in the cost and the necessity to spend to be competitive – which is what we've been trying to do."