By Phil Huff
May 13 2006

Honda Racing F1's team boss Nick Fry sat down today to talk about Formula One, and specifically the future of the sport. Also covering a number of other issues, here's what he had to say... You were pre-season favourites. How do you feel you've done so far, what is lacking?

Could do better, I think is probably where we are. We're trying to beat the best of the best. I still think that there are four teams which were probably the same teams at the start of the season which have a chance: clearly Renault and Ferrari and I think McLaren and ourselves. We've got more work to do.

But certainly, we're nowhere near thinking about giving up. The whole secret to this is just to keep going and to persevere. We're still absolutely filled with not only good ideas but enthusiasm and passion about this and we will be totally relentless and we will get there, whether it be tomorrow, whether it will be the next day but we will get there in the end.

And the team spirit for us is incredibly good. We've got a fantastic pair of drivers and great engineers and we're learning fast and there's stuff that we didn't find out in the pre-season [tests] which subsequently we've learned more about. I think it's fair to say that we have learned more in the last two months than probably in the last two years about how to make the tyres work, but we've still got more to do, and the secret to all of this is to keep learning. If we were sitting there thinking 'oh my Lord, what are we going to do next?' then I would be worried but that's absolutely not the case. We're sitting there with a whole bunch of things, experiments that we need to do. We know we need to improve in a whole bunch of areas. Making the tyres work with the car is clearly one of those. We've said before, our traction control system is not as good as it should be. We, like a lot of the others, have work to do on the engine and we've got work to do on the aerodynamics. We're the only big team without a full size wind tunnel and ours is coming on stream as we speak, and it's something which will certainly help us in the latter part of the series, so disappointed, absolutely. Should do better can do better and will do better.

It has been suggested that this is more a Michelin track than a Bridgestone track. Do you think 1) that is the case and 2) is that what is going to happen throughout the championship?

I think it's going to be nip and tuck probably for the rest of the season. I think both tyres are clearly doing a good job and putting in a strong performance. It's down to the choice of tyres and I don't think we had the same tyre as Renault and McLaren at the last race, as we have here today. We didn't have for the first three races, we went our own way which was much publicised but ironically, they were probably stronger performances for us than for the last couple. But clearly tyres in general are going to be critical to the outcome of this season.

Who do you think is putting up the better performance at the moment, Ferrari or Renault or are they roughly equal?

I think one thing I've learned in my four years in Formula One is that everyone at the front of the grid does a fantastic job and I think people's performance varies slightly from race to race but in general, the level of skill all around, and the level of talent is unbelievable, and at a much higher level than even I anticipated before I came into Formula One. So I think it's very difficult to say, just generally, which one does a better job. I think it does vary day-to-day, but I think all of the top teams have immensely talented people who work jolly hard and do a jolly good job generally.

There's a report today that the sporting working group, which represents teams in the world championship, it's clear the teams actually voted down the FIA's freeze on engine development for a fixed period of time – believed to be three years. Is that correct and does it mean the end for the FIA's proposal for an engine freeze?

The reports I've had back from our representative at the meeting were that the meeting was an excellent one. They came back feeling that it was a worthwhile period of time. It certainly was the first of the sporting working groups established by the FIA and the processes that were put in place are ones that we applaud. It is democratic and based on majority voting. The people that were at the meeting were people of huge credibility and people who have spent a lot of their lives in Formula One and believe in it. I don't want to do a roll call, but we had Stefano Domenicalli from Ferrari, Dave Ryan from McLaren, Ron Meadows from our own team, Stevie Nielsen from Renault – they're people who really do know about Formula One and one of the things that was very encouraging is that theses people voted with extreme conviction and it was good that every vote was carried by a majority of eight or nine of the 12, so it's very encouraging that three quarters of the field agreed. Were votes all votes that we at Honda would like? I have to say no, but some we like and some we didn't like so much, but the process was one that looks a good one. I think if the majority vote for or against something and they're people of that credibility, then we'd go along with it like a good process. Obviously the outcome of that meeting has be ratified by the following groups: The Formula One Commission and the World Council, but with that sort of majority I'd expect things to be carried through and if nine of the 12 teams or eight of the 12 teams – I'm not exactly sure of the numbers on that vote, but if eight or nine go that way on a vote, one would expect it to be carried through. Obviously we have more meetings to go.

I believed after July 1, the group must vote unanimously to get a rule pushed through? Is that true?

Other people in our organisation have a better understanding but I think you're confusing things with the technical working group and the sporting working group. Certain things are different and I believe this is one that operates on a simple majority vote which would have appear to have worked well. I think in the case of a split vote then the FIA gets the casting vote but that clearly wasn't necessary. There was a clear majority and I can say in my short history of Formula One that is one of the few times I've seen such a clear majority.

Two aspects that have surfaced recently are safety in testing and revisions to qualifying. What are your views on both?

On qualifying, it's important that we don't make a knee-jerk reaction. We've had five races and general agreement is that it's better than last year, so I think we would be extremely inconsistent to make dramatic changes at this stage. That doesn't mean we're against refining it but we, as a team, would not be in favour of major changes at this stage. We need to know more about it and make changes later if we need to. At the moment the case for major changes are unproven. We can see some areas where we might like changes to tidy it up in a small way.

I think our general view is to make the tests as safe as they can be. In a testing agreement that we all signed, it was agreed with Gary Hartstein [FIA Medical Delegate] as to how we would do that. We put our signatures to it and I think that's what we should be working towards.