Honda hopeful of competing in 2009 I Debate: standardised engines: who wins the F1 title? I Analysis: Edward Gorman I Credit crunch forces Honda to pull out of Formula One I Button undone as Honda pull out I Honda had oil in the blood

Honda have said they have serious interest from three prospective buyers; are they an attractive proposition for investors and how likely do you think it is that they will be able to sell the team?

There are two views on this. If you look at the global economic conditions it seems hard to imagine anyone buying a Formula One team, it just doesn’t seem to be a sensible thing to be doing.

On the other hand, there are a number of parties who have a long-standing interest in motor racing who might come in. We know there has been recent interest from the gulf, especially with the new circuit in Abu Dhabi. When Super Aguri went down earlier this year, there was potential interest from that part of the world.

There are also former owners in this country would could be interested but it is hard to believe the team would carry on at anything like its present size. There are already suggestions that if it is sold it would continue as a much, much smaller outfit probably buying in its engines from someone else and essentially dropping right down the grid, but it’s difficult to see anyone being interested in Honda at the size it is at the moment.

What are the implications for next year's championship should Honda pull out?

I think it just changes the ground rules on the debate about the future of Formula One. It clears away the roadblocks to Max Moseley’s goal of making the sport more sustainable. The big fear is that Formula One could become a dinosaur, that just looks both environmentally and commercially unsustainable and that it could actually die out. And so what Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone want to achieve is to try and ensure that F1 is on a realistic footing both in terms of environmental awareness and its commercial basis.

Could Honda's withdrawal lead to more teams pulling out of next year's championship? If so, who is most vulnerable?

This withdrawal takes the number of cars on the grid down to 18. We started last season with 22 and after Super Aguri, the Honda B team, pulled out we went down to 20. We’re going to find out today, but we believe that Ecclestone is required to put 18 cars on the grid so we are getting quite close to the point when Formula One, even by the FIA’s own standards, becomes unworkable and insufficiently competitive. So the sport can afford anyone else to withdraw and there is a feeling that everyone is walking on egg shells waiting for someone else to see what has happened at Honda and say to themselves if Honda’s doing that then it’s pretty hard for us to continue.

You have to look at the other big manufacturers, like Toyota, who have been hit by exactly the same, if not worse market conditions, and are seeing sales slumps of historic proportions. At the moment Toyota are completely committed to 2009, but you never know, this news about Honda came completely out of the blue, so you just can’t predict the future.

What does all this mean for the drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello? They will want their contracts honoured presumably? Are there seats available at other teams?

For Rubens Barrichello this is a huge disaster because it probably means the end of his career in Formula One.