London's Natural History museum and, appropriately, its 'Earth Galleries' hosted Monday's launch of Honda's 'Earth Car.'
Apart from a discreet Honda decal on the nose and some recognition for F1's sole tyre supplier, there was not a sticker or sponsor logo in sight. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will race throughout 2007 in a car covered in decals representing a huge image of our planet.
Honda, said team chief Nick Fry, had been looking at what was concerning people and found that there were three things: poverty, peace and environmental issues. They couldn't do a lot about the first two, but the environment stood out because it concerns everyone, whether you live in America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East or Africa.
And so Honda's car, using the huge global reach of Formula One, is a call to action, an attempt to make everyone more globally aware and to encourage them to start doing something about it.