Honda F1 bosses offer the entire staff $2,000 for a win
Let's get this straight: we are fans of the Honda F1 team. As cynical as everyone else makes the friends-of-the-earth thing out to be, Honda has put its paint where its money is by excluding sponsors logos from the car. Honda's problem, though, hasn't been its sentiment -- it's been the fact that the Honda team has only won one F1 race, a wet and wild affair in Hungary in 2006.
The team's biggest move in the off-season was to put former Ferrari strategy master Ross Brawn team principal (shown above). In an additional bid to show people they're serious, keep folks at the team, and get everyone on board to win, they're offering everyone on staff -- all the way down to the Brackley factory cleaners -- a bonus of $2,000 for a win. Each win would cost the company more than $1.5 million, a price we're sure they'd be happy to pay for constructor's points, publicity, and the collective sigh of relief that would come with it. The question is, with a 2008 car that is already being described as slow, while Ferrari is breaking the pole lap records at Bahrain... when is an incentive not really an incentive?
[Source: Daily F1, Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tankd0g 3:42PM (2/07/2008)
If wishes were fishes....
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Polly Prissy Pants 4:00PM (2/07/2008)
Just doing the math, that means 750 people to field a F1 car? That's amazing, I had no idea. My only other thought is that $2000 is great if I'm one of the cleaners, but chances are if I'm someone who's efforts have the ability to significantly affect the outcome of a F1 race then $2000 probably means very little to me. It's a nice thought though, don't get me wrong, I just wonder how much of an impact something like this could really have.
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Tsunami Racer 5:22PM (2/07/2008)
sign me up for two wins!!
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pmiddle5 12:17AM (2/08/2008)
If I was a member of the Brackley Honda F1 team you bet your ass those would be the most highly polished floors I could ever do.
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andrewh 4:37AM (2/08/2008)
This is not so uncommon - I believe that Renault and others do it although probably somewhat less than $2k - how much is $2k now, thirty quid :-). Renault really paid out big in the 2006 season.
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