Comments on: Sato Pleads While Honda Decide http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/05/05/sato-pleads-while-honda-decide/ Your Regular Blog and Guide to Formula One Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:58:17 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Steven Roy http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/05/05/sato-pleads-while-honda-decide/comment-page-1/#comment-65568 Steven Roy Thu, 08 May 2008 12:22:55 +0000 http://blogf1.co.uk/?p=1190#comment-65568 Given that SA was ostensibly set up to avoid a loss of face by Honda it seems very odd to publicly take the team out like this. It would have been a lot smarter to do it before the season started and wrap it up in some nice PR about how they financed the team but SA were unable to stand on their own two feet despite Honda's best effortd etc. Instead of that they have made a public mess of it and in the process no doubt managed to embarrass and annoy a man who has been a Honda customer for many years in Aguri Suzuki. If I was Toyota I would be tempted to cash in on Honda's loss of face and sign Sato to a cheap testing contract and get some good publicity in Japan. Given the awful mess Toyota have made of F1 I would have thought they would grab any good publicity they could get and if they can twist the knife in their rival's back so much the better. Given that SA was ostensibly set up to avoid a loss of face by Honda it seems very odd to publicly take the team out like this. It would have been a lot smarter to do it before the season started and wrap it up in some nice PR about how they financed the team but SA were unable to stand on their own two feet despite Honda’s best effortd etc. Instead of that they have made a public mess of it and in the process no doubt managed to embarrass and annoy a man who has been a Honda customer for many years in Aguri Suzuki.

If I was Toyota I would be tempted to cash in on Honda’s loss of face and sign Sato to a cheap testing contract and get some good publicity in Japan. Given the awful mess Toyota have made of F1 I would have thought they would grab any good publicity they could get and if they can twist the knife in their rival’s back so much the better.

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