Formula One news

Honda blocks Super Aguri trucks from Istanbul paddock

Honda has ordered the struggling Super Aguri team's spares truck and motorhome to be blocked from entering the Istanbul circuit paddock today, GPUpdate.net has learned. The dramatic news comes despite the fact that Super Aguri has a meeting with the Honda board on Tuesday to present the investment plan from the German Weigl Group.

Sources have revealed to GPUpdate.net that Honda F1 team CEO Nick Fry called Bernie Ecclestone over the weekend allegedly claiming to know the decision of the board even before Tuesday's meeting and saying that the Super Aguri team would not be racing in Turkey. That is of course, news to the Super Aguri team itself which is busy preparing for Tuesday's meeting in Tokyo.

If that is true, then Fry's actions would certainly have been fed down from above and that Honda is trying to protect its image and avoid the embarassment of having any Super Aguri presence in the Istanbul paddock next weekend, if the Weigl Group's offer is rejected.

Aguri Suzuki is now frantically trying to reach the Honda board to bring forward the meeting from Tuesday to tomorrow, if at all possible, to understand what the fate of his team is, and whether it has been decided by the Japanese car giant's executives already. Honda has yet to issue any kind of comment on these startling developments.

The Weigl Group has sales in excess of $200m annually and its owner has openly said he also has other financial backers for the Super Aguri team investment. Sources close to the talks have told GPUpdate.net that one of the main sticking points the Honda board is likely to have over the rescue plan is that Weigl needs to repay the team's debt to Honda over a three-year period, and not in one immediate installment as the fallen-through proposal from Magma intended.

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