Former triple world champion and Formula One spokesman Sir Jackie Stewart fully believes that Honda Racing’s Formula One days are over and they won’t be the last team to exit the grid due to the continued global recession.

Stewart’s words come on the same day the new US based team, USF1 was launched live on American television (read our exclusive interview here), however the Scotsman claims that not only Formula One but other areas in the sporting world will be affected in the not too distant future.

As for Honda, according to Stewart, the hope of getting a buyer in these final days seems almost hopeless….

"The damage was done when Honda announced in December that they were pulling out and although there has been a slim hope that they might survive, my feeling is that it's all come to nothing," Stewart told the Herald. "I know Richard Branson is interested in Grand Prix and he attended a few races last year, but although he has achieved a lot in his life, he also tends to get publicity in other cases where there isn't much substance to the stories.”

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone attempted a takeover bid however Stewart is totally against such a move….

"As for Bernie taking a share in a management buy-out, that would be a clear conflict of interest, because he would then have to become a member of FOTA Formula One Teams Association and you can't have somebody running the sport and having a stake in one of the competitors. So, I think we can rule that out.”

“Basically, the problem lies in the lack of money around sport and I am not just talking about F1, but also football, golf, tennis, the rest, because nobody is safe in the midst of the recession. The motor industry is in one of the most perilous positions, because if people aren't buying cars, then it filters through every other branch of the business, and most motoring teams are having to cut their cloth and cling on to existing contracts in the knowledge that it simply isn't the right time to be persuading new sponsors to come on board.”

Honda runs out of time to find a buyer at the end of this week….