F1 Barcelon

In Barcelona, the F1 teams have completed Friday’s practice sessions and are working on the first round of qualifying setups and race readiness. The F1 teams minus BAR. The FIA effectively gave BAR Honda the death penalty for the season by banning them for two races (one being Monaco) and excluding them from the points chase. The FIA’s ruling comes about after the scrutineers found the BAR to be 5Kg underweight after the San Marino Grand Prix.
In my opinion the penalty is overly harsh, but BAR has decided not to fight it. This indicates to me they knew what they were doing and have decided to take their medicine. But the ramifications go deeper and the ever swirling conspiracy theories in the paddock are cranked up to full.
BAR Honda will have to sit out the series premier event in a fortnight when F1 goes to the historic street course in Monte Carlo. How much money will that cost the team? Forget about money per point, the high profile race in Monte Carlo is a showcase and BAR will not be there. Buttons and Takuma have contract issues that the team will have to deal with before the end of the season. I wouldn’t expect Taku to go anywhere, but Buttons tried to escape to Williams last season. If he fails to achieve certain status by mid-season he can leave the team. Not sure where he would go, but if Nick Heidfeld is doing poorly at Williams he better watch his donkey.
One of the more compelling theories about the penalty is the GPWC v. F1 (FIA) battle. BAR Honda is one of the leaders in the fight to control the sport. Many are saying this is the FIA’s way of getting back at them for their insubordination. May be. After all, there is so much money riding on F1 that any attempt to wrestle control away form Max and Bernie is bound to be looked upon as taking food off of their tables.
So BAR sits this weekends Spanish GP and then Monaco. They return at the Nurburgring at the end of May for the European GP. The question is, what is their motivation for the rest of the season?