Tobacco firm sells F1 stake to Honda (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Tobacco firm sells F1 stake to Honda

HONDA has bought out the BAR Honda Formula One team.

Having acquired a 45 per cent share in the outfit in January, the car manufacturer has announced it will buy the remaining 55 per cent from British American Tobacco (BAT) for an undisclosed sum.

The Japanese car maker, which employs 4,000 people in Swindon, brought BAR Honda racers Jenson Button and Takumo Sato to the Science Museum in Wroughton in July for its summer event. The deal takes place at the end of this year, and BAT will remain as sponsor through Lucky Strike cigarettes, for the 2006 season.

BAT is leaving F1 due to a new ban on tobacco sponsorship.

BAT marketing director Jimmi Rembiszewski said: "It will be sad to end our association but it is satisfying to leave the team in the competent hands of Honda who are proven winners in the sport."

The team is based at Brackley, Northamptonshire.