My Guess is that Honda will pull out

BAR Honda banned for two races
The FIA International Court of Appeal has ruled that BAR-Honda should be suspended from the next two races and has been given a six-month suspension, suspended for a year. The judges of the court ruled that the team failed to comply with Articles 1.9, 4.1, 4.2 and 2.6 of the Sporting Regulations and also violated Article 151-c of the International Sporting Code.

This is an extraordinary statement in that Articles 1.9, 4.1, 4.2 and 2.6 are actually Technical Regulations rather than Sporting Regulations and it is hard to see how a team can fail to comply with a rule that states “Weight is the weight of the car with the driver, wearing his complete racing apparel, at all times during the event”. That is a definition.

Article 4.1 states that “the weight of the car must not be less than 605 kg during the qualifying practice session and no less than 600 kg at all other times during the event”.

Article 4.2 states that “Ballast can be used provided it is secured in such a way that tools are required for its removal. It must be possible to fix seals if deemed necessary by the FIA technical delegate”.

Article 2.6 states that “it is the duty of each competitor to satisfy the FIA technical delegate and the stewards of the meeting that his automobile complies with these regulations in their entirety at all times during an event. The design of the car, its components and systems shall, with the exception of safety features, demonstrate their compliance with these regulations by means of physical inspection of hardware or materials. No mechanical design may rely upon software inspection as a means of ensuring its compliance”.

They should do away with the rules and let them drive anything with four wheels and an engine. Or else they should strap the lawyers who write crap like this to the cars during the race.

I think it’s going to depend on how important the series is to Honda, and their sucesses in it. If they feel the series is important to their business, then they are likely to stick it out. If they are kind of on the edge and the program is a drain on Honda, then something like this will push them out of the series for good.