By Pablo Elizalde
Williams's CEO Adam Parr believes another Formula One team will leave the sport before the start of the 2009 season.
"I had expected one or two teams to pull out of Formula One imminently," Parr told Reuters in an interview.
"And I also said that it was not necessarily going to be just independent teams that were involved.
"I believe that we probably will lose another team before the beginning of next season and there is a very high chance it will be a manufacturer."
Japanese manufacturer Honda announced last week that it was withdrawing from Formula One with immediate effect due to the world's financial crisis.
The Brackley-based squad have been put up for sale and their chiefs are trying to find a buyer before the start of the season in Melbourne in March.
Parr said Honda's decision came as a consequence "of unlimited and unrestrained spending."
"Honda didn't have to leave Formula One, it chose to," added Parr. "Williams would never choose to leave Formula One. So long as we can rub together a few pennies and put together a half-decent budget, we are going to go racing.
"If we have to tailor what we spend to a lower income, then we'll do that. To me, it's just completely illogical to talk about Williams leaving Formula One."
He added: "We believe that our position is pretty much different to all the other teams because every other team in Formula One is primarily dependent on one of its shareholders that is providing either all or a very high proportion of the income for the team.
"That shareholder is in Formula One primarily for marketing reasons. They can at any time decide that the cost-benefit ratio of leaving Formula One makes sense.
"The difference with Williams is that we don't have a choice about being in F1, that is what we do."
Source:
http://www.autosport.com