By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, ENGLAND - Honda are likely to be followed out of Formula One by another manufacturer before the start of next season, Williams chief executive Adam Parr said on Monday. "I had expected one or two teams to pull out of Formula One imminently. And I also said that it was not necessarily going to be just independent teams that were involved," he told Reuters in an interview.

"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."

The 2009 season starts in Australia on March 29. Honda announced on Friday that they were quitting for financial reasons, leaving their British-based team desperately seeking a buyer in the face of a global credit crunch.

Although Honda F1 bosses said they had several parties interested in taking on the under-performing team, which employes more than 800 people, others believe they will struggle to find a serious purchaser in the limited time available.

Honda had no significant sponsors, in a sport where even the smallest players have annual budgets of more than $120 million(S$182 mil), and any buyer will also have to purchase engines from another manufacturer and re-design the 2009 car to fit.

The other carmakers involved in Formula One are BMW, Mercedes, Renault, Toyota and Fiat (Ferrari). All are being battered by the economic crisis, halting production and laying off workers as sales plunge to their lowest levels in years.

ENTIRELY PREDICTABLE

Parr said Honda's departure was "entirely predictable" and laughed off newspaper reports at the weekend suggesting that his team were among the most vulnerable of those remaining.

"Honda didn't have to leave Formula One, it chose to," he said, depicting the Japanese manufacturer's departure as a "natural consequence of unlimited and unrestrained spending."

"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."

Williams, who this year celebrated their 30th season, made a loss of 21.4 million pounds ($31.74 million) in 2007 but expect to reduce their debt in 2008.

Powered by Toyota engines, they are the only team in Formula One not owned, wholly or in part, by a manufacturer or a billionaire individual.

"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," said Parr.

"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."

Parr said that because Formula One sponsorship deals were generally multi-year and staggered so that they did not all lapse at once, Williams could count on a secure income for the next couple of years.

While that could spell trouble further down the line, with Formula One likely to be last into a recession and last out of it, the teams will benefit from planned cost cuts.

"We have already agreed measures for 2009 which will have a significant benefit for us," Parr said of talks between the manufacturers and governing body.

"There are further measures identified for 2010 and 2011 and those collectively will involve a significant reduction in what we need to go racing."

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley said last week that annual budgets needed to come down to around the 30 million pound mark for 2010, allowing teams to be competitive without requiring more funds than provided by television revenues and limited sponsorship.

He also announced the option of a low-cost powertrain (engine and gearbox) from 2010 costing 5.49 million pounds a year after an up-front payment of 1.68 million.

(Editing by Justin Palmer)