Honda F1 Team Launch the 'Earth Car'

The Honda Formula One team announced that its new car for the current F1season will not be displaying any advertising logos. Instead it will be featuring a giant picture of the Earth, with the team unveiling the first ever "Earth Car".

Announcing the decision at London's Natural History Museum on Monday, Honda team boss Nick Fry said, "Formula One and the environment may not seem exactly bedfellows. There will always be that last few percent of cynics but we found very strong support right across the world to do something in this direction."

Fry believes that the team's popularity could be used in a better way to create more awareness about the environment issues faced by the planet. "The global reach, the number of people we can talk to, is immense, so we can change minds.

We are going in a more environmentally-friendly direction with the systems we put on the car and Formula One is really a laboratory for road car technology", he said. He added that the car will feature all the names of those who have made a small donation to some environmental charity through the website www.myearthdream.com.

"Under the concept of 'our car is your car', each name will form a tiny individual pixel which will help build the image of planet Earth on the car. Each name will be visible on the Web site when you make the pledge or under the microscope on the car." Meanwhile team driver Jenson Button has come out saying that the new car is still not quick enough and the team will have to work hard if they are to compete with other teams.

"We still have another test in Bahrain with a lot of things to test. Hopefully they will help because we are not on the same pace as the Ferraris, the McLarens or the BMWs. We've improved a lot but still we're not where we want to be. We're not quite there but all we can do is get our heads down and hopefully improve the car as soon as possible. We are definitely going in the right direction", Button added.