The truth???

Karma

Eddie Jordan explains why he got rid of HHF.
http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=77434

dearg_doom

a little bit more info here

bizzare is the only word I can think of for the whole situ though!

why would EJ have to drop HHF in those circumstances???

Taku only raced in the last race that season, and Alesi did the remainder!

aidan_dunne

It makes a lot of sense as to why he dropped HHF, if you think about it. And it's far from bizarre, to be honest. The Japanese corporations are notorious for playing these kind of games, especially the likes of Honda. It's all about marketing and politics, you see. For a long time now Honda have been desperate to find a Japanese driver who would be a success in Formula 1, hence their sponsorship and promotion of lots of Japanese drivers through the years. And this isn't the first time they've pulled something like this, either.

In 1987, Honda were engine suppliers to Williams and Lotus. The Williams-Honda combination went on to win both Drivers' (Nelson Piquet) and Constructors' Championships that year. Midway through the season, discussions were taking place between Williams and Honda regarding the renewal of the engine contract for 1988 and beyond. However, Honda were determined to get their sponsored driver, Satoru Nakijima, a drive in Formula 1 and said to Frank Williams that a continued engine supply was dependant on Williams giving a drive to Nakijima (at the expense, it's believed, of Nelson Piquet, who Honda wanted dropped from the team). Frank Williams was having none of this and told the bosses at Honda that he and only he would decide who drove for his team. He wasn't going to be told who to employ in his team by anybody. Apparantly, Frank was incensed by Honda and their apparant attempts at "blackmailing" him into taking on Nakijima or else loose his engine supply.

Now, the bosses at Honda were very, very fond of Ayrton Senna (who was driving for the Honda-powered Lotus team at the time) so when it transpired that Senna was in talks with McLaren for a drive with them for the 1988 season, Honda came on-board into Senna's corner. Basically, they said to McLaren that if they were to employ Senna that they would switch their engine supply from Williams to McLaren. Of course, Ron Dennis was rubbing his hands in glee at this prospect because the 1.5 litre, V6 twin-turbo Honda engine was the best in F1 at the time and the one everybody wanted to get their hands on (even though turbocharged engines were due to be banned at the end of 1988, anyway). Honda also asked Dennis what the state of the contract was between Alain Prost and McLaren, just to see if there was any chance of maybe getting Nakijima in there as well, but Prost had a pretty solid contract with McLaren. "Okay, fair enough", thought the Honda bosses, "we'll just stick him into the Lotus team for the '88 season" (which was also going to retain their supply of Honda engines). Honda had gotten what they wanted on both counts, a Japanese driver into F1 with the Lotus team (okay, they would have preferred to have gotten him into a top team like Williams but, hey, what can you do?) and another of their favourite drivers into a top team at McLaren, alongside another top driver (Prost). Now for their final hand to play and to see if they could have their cake and eat it and get everything their own way!

Honda were also very fond of Nigel Mansell, who had been driving for Williams for the past three seasons. They loved his gutsy, never-say-die driving attitude, something which was demonstrated brilliantly at the British Grand Prix that year with his comeback drive from a wheel problem, his famous "dummy" on Piquet down the Hanger Straight and then going on to win when he was, literally, driving on petrol fumes. Not long after that race, or so the story goes, Mansell, Frank Williams, Patrick Head and some of the other top people at the Williams team were having dinner at some function or something one evening. At another table were the bosses of Honda. They had just finalised the deal with Senna and McLaren and gotten Nakijima in place at Lotus for the following season and now they saw an opportunity to nab another of their favourite drivers, Mansell, as well and stick him in the Lotus team alongside Nakijima. A member of the Honda party made their way over to the Williams table and asked Nigel to come over. He went over and was made an offer to drive for them for 1988. He didn't say a word, showed no emotion, he simply went back to his table and continued having dinner. After a while, he was called over again. Apparantly, an even bigger offer was made. Once again, he simply returned to the Williams table. Honda were now getting desperate. Several times after that during the evening, one of the Honda guys would come rushing over with even bigger and bigger offers written down on a piece of paper to hand to Mansell, all of which was greeted with...... nothing! No wide eyes, no blinking at the number of zeros written on the pieces of paper, no emotion at all. Despite Honda's best efforts that night (and it's reported their best efforts amounted to several million dollars plus covering expenses for Mansell and his entourage!), Mansell ended up driving for Williams in 1988, powered by a woeful normally-aspirated Judd V8 engine. Despite the money offered, the politics involved and all their efforts, Honda didn't complete their "hat-trick" of wishes for the 1988 season.

So, as you can see, this isn't the first time Honda has tried politics, "blackmail", huge money offers and anything else they can with a team owner or driver in order to get their way. It worked in the case of the Eddie Jordan/Heinz Harald Frentzen saga....... it didn't work against Frank Williams and Nigel Mansell in 1987!











As a side-note, Nakijima turned out to be a disaster in F1!

Töpher

I read this last night and was too angry to do a post on it! To be honest, I still am! Who was HHF's partner that year? Was it Trulli? Why not loose him (if indeed it was him) instead?

Nuttzz

it was trulli, probably down to whose contract would it cost more to break?

dearg_doom

that's what I thought was bizzare about the eplanation EJ just gave!!

why could JordanF1 not just hire a third/fourth driver in taku and keep HHF?

It surely wouldn't have cost that much

EDIT: or did HHF offend someone at the time??

Karma

there was a rummour that HHF was fighting with the team over the car and he said he would pay for the setup and if he improved as a result the team would have to pay for it. ONE OF MANY STORIES AT THE TIME.
Whatever the reason, the sacking of HHF was the start of the downward slide into MidlandF1.
I'm off to watch DTM.