Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co. missed at least $255 million of brand exposure on television by selling the Formula One team that swept the world championship titles yesterday, a media analysis company said.

The Japanese carmaker sold the team to manager Ross Brawn in March, depriving it of 8 1/2 hours of international coverage the squad’s cars got in the first 15 of 17 races, according to Godalming, England-based Margaux Matrix Ltd., which analyzed broadcasts and advertising rates in 18 countries.

That’s more broadcast time than rivals including Ferrari SpA’s team and more than three times what Honda got when it finished ninth last year, the media monitoring company said.

“I’m sure there have been some conversations internally in Japan saying ‘Whoops, did we get that wrong?’” said Zak Brown, chief executive officer of Zionsville, Indiana-based Just Marketing Corp., an auto-racing consultant.

Brawn wrapped up the drivers’ and constructors’ titles with one race remaining yesterday when its driver Jenson Button came fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.

Honda quit the sport to save at least 20 billion yen ($221 million) a year in costs after slashing its earnings forecast and firing assembly workers as the credit crunch hurt sales. Winning its first title since buying the team in 2005 would have been an “immense” boost for the Honda brand, according to Mark Jenkins, a business strategy professor at the U.K.’s Cranfield University who writes a Formula One blog.

“It would have been the icing on the cake if Honda had held in there,” Jenkins said. “It would have been worth a few points of global market share.”

‘Paid Off’

Instead, Honda’s investment has paid off for Brawn. Button won six of the first seven races this year, while teammate Rubens Barrichello has won two. Much of the team’s white car has been bare of sponsorship branding because there wasn’t enough time to secure deals with top-paying advertisers, Jenkins said.

Honda Chief Executive Officer Takanobu Ito said he doesn’t regret predecessor Takeo Fukui’s decision to pull out. It’s using the F-1 money to speed fuel-efficiency research, redeploying 400 engineers to mass-produced cars.

“Mr Fukui’s decision was absolutely right and I say ‘thank you’ to him,” Ito said in an Oct. 1 interview.

Automakers are hastening to meet stricter pollution regulations. The U.S. will force carmakers to produce vehicles that get an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. The Honda fleet’s average fuel economy ranked second at 29.6 mpg last year, behind Toyota Motor Corp. at 29.7 mpg, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Toyota, Honda’s main competitor in Japan, is one of four carmakers including Ferrari that in July signed up to stay in F-1 through 2012. Toyota is fifth in this year’s team championship. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is withdrawing after this season.

Branson Boost

One of the biggest winners from Brawn’s success this season is Virgin Group Ltd., a U.K. company owned by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, Just Marketing CEO Brown said. Virgin probably paid less than $5 million for putting its logo on Brawn cars this season, Brown added. Brawn has done other minor deals with companies including MIG Investments, a foreign- exchange broker based in Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Virgin got $59 million worth of television exposure in the first 15 races, more than the Renault team’s title sponsor ING Groep NV got from a bigger deal, according to Margaux Matrix. ING withdrew its support of Renault on Sept. 24 after the team was involved in a cheating scandal.

“There’s probably a little bit of an embarrassment factor at Honda” for missing out on the publicity, Brown said. “But no one has a crystal ball.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Duff in Madrid at aduff4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 18, 2009 19:02 EDT