By Phil Huff
June 18 2005

Lucky Strike BAR Honda team boss Nick Fry took part in the 'Friday Five' press conference, talking to the media about Danica, the ban, 2008 and more. Here's what he had to say... Nick, Danica Patrick is the big name over here in the States, there was the possibility of her running in a BAR Honda, which isn't happening. Is there a possibility of her running in the future in the BAR Honda?

We haven't got anything planned at the moment. Clearly she is doing a good job for Honda over here and wants to focus on running the car tomorrow and in the end it just proved totally impractical. Danica had to be in Phoenix, where she is at the moment, and she had a sponsor's obligation. I think, as you saw yesterday, she causes a huge amount of media interest here in the States. So nothing planned at the moment.

You unfortunately received a ban from a couple races earlier on in the season. Looking back now, how did that affect the team morale?

In terms of morale, not much. It's amazing how well the team has pulled together. That's not only just the people within the team but the support we've had from all the sponsors has been frankly absolutely outstanding. That's all of them, from the small ones right through to the owners of the team. So I think with that support, it's been relatively easy for everyone to pull together. But I think these things you just put behind you and get on with it. I think the team has an unbelievable fighting spirit. I think you saw the effort that guys put in to change Takuma's gearbox during the race last week to get him a bit further up qualifying. That was an indication of how good the fighting spirit is. So BAR is a team that has had a few knocks over the years and spent the first few years being extremely unsuccessful and I think that has led to the team being strong. We lost a bit of momentum, which was unfortunate, probably more than we anticipated, but the last race wasn't bad and we're hopeful for this weekend.

If I could go on to this question about the proposed 2008 regulations, I'm sure you will say that it's a starting point for negotiation. But there must be bits that you like and bits that you don't like, so I would be very interested to hear your comments on that.

Since Montreal, Geoff and myself have been occupied doing other things. We've read it but haven't digested it. I think generally anything that improves the excitement of the racing for the fans is to be applauded. Whether these are the right things or the wrong things, I think is simply too early to say at this stage. We haven't had a chance to go through it properly. So when we have time to do so, I'm sure we'll respond probably collectively, I'm sure there will be some discussion between the teams and I'm sure there's some very good bits and probably not so good bits. But I think it would be premature to say anything definitive at this stage.

A question about the philosophy of Formula One. The new proposal says same engine, V8, same angle, internal of the gearbox is the same. What else? ECU is the same, brakes are the same. Is it the future of Formula One? It is like GP2 and now maybe called GP1 and everybody is the same? Why should the manufacturers stay in Formula One if everything is the same?

I think it's just a general principle, we've said, I think, and a number of the other teams have said several times, we want to see Formula One be at the so-called pinnacle of motorsport and I think we need to define what that is. Cherry picking from the list put forward at this stage is probably inappropriate but I think most of the companies have made it clear that they want to see Formula One at that apex. I think that's as far as we should go on that at the moment.

How does the test cap affect the requirement to test cars for next year's engine regulations? Obviously the cars will be totally different to those you have this year? Is there not a case to be made to stop development on a car that's not competitive at this stage and concentrate on next year's car?

I think the thing you probably have seen happen is that we've all stuck together over this. We all, by e-mail, sort of loosely agreed that we'd contain the V8 testing within the present restrictions. But probably what you have seen, I think everyone is working like billyo to maximize the benefits of every single day. So the test mileages, I think, of all the top teams have gone up dramatically, unfortunately taken the costs with it. So to some extent, we've just used it more efficiently, but obviously miles mean money at the end of the day because lots of the parts for the car have a finite life.

To what extent is it an advantage to run a third car on a Friday? You know, can it win you the championship?

From a team that had it and lost it, I'd say very big. (Laughter)

Do you benefit from the Michelin side or do you know that you benefit?

I think there's a reasonable exchange. Michelin are tremendous to work with in many ways in that there's a lot of Chinese walls there, so obviously we don't get information which is specific but obviously they use the information they get generically to give gentle guidance. But I think we've noticed quite a big difference. There's a lot of things you can do with that additional car on Friday which you lose and certainly we've noticed it hurts a bit. It's not the end of the world, but it's an advantage.

At your launch in February, you said that you're seeking clarification regarding tobacco from the British government in particular and that you felt that would be forthcoming fairly soon. You have got three race days left after this one where you can run tobacco livery. Have you had clarification? What is the status on that?

In our absence over here, and maybe Ron will have some information for his sponsors, my understanding is that a question was asked in the House of Commons and to Mr. Hoon with a fairly positive response that the so-called issue of extra-territoriality was not intended, it was not intended to mean that pictures shown abroad transmitted back to the UK would result in any kind of penalty. Now, that was a verbal response in the House. Our lawyers are currently looking at that to decide whether it has a material benefit. So it's still a little bit up in the air. But at the latest I heard, once I've been out here, was that was a positive sign.

I'd just like to canvas opinion on the single tyre because some say the effect of the tyre on the overall package is disproportionate and therefore there is a case for regulating the tyre. Others say that it makes racing more interesting and it would also obviously if it was a single tyre, cut your budgets by a considerable amount. Where do you stand on that? Do you agree or not?

I think it comes back to what I said earlier about the pinnacle of motorsports. We all want it to remain there at the top. I think a rhetorical question is, is restricting one particular thing compatible with that? And the answer is I think that's part of the whole discussion process. Why pick on that one thing? So I think it's just part of the mix that we have to discuss as we review what we do post-Concorde agreement.

The business aspect of Formula One is increasingly important now. How difficult is it for you to find the sporting side of it? Or are you just feeling pretty objective about it? Can you separate the two quite easily?

I think there's much easier ways to make money than this. It's extremely tough. This is my first full year and the amount of travel we have to do and even in between races is very, very significant. If you didn't enjoy the fun of the sporting side, then frankly there are better things to do. So at the end of the day, I think it's all about racing and the rest is just there to support it. Frankly, the sooner we get some of the question marks out of the other side of it, the better, and then we can concentrate on having fun racing and making the whole racing more entertaining which I think has been fairly successful this year so far, albeit with a bit of controversy, but I think that's what we need to all focus on.

There's been some talk that the calendar might shrink next year from 19 races. Do you think that's desirable? If so, do you have any guidance on whether the calendar will decrease next year?

I do wonder whether the four races in five weeks that's coming up is simply too much for the customers. I think when they're that close, just how willing people are to give up their Sunday afternoons or, will they be allowed to give up their Sunday afternoons to watch motorsport four out of five times? To me that's a question mark; I don't know the answer to that, so I support Peter. I think forget our side, I think we should be the entertainers, but I think the public needs to tell us whether they want that many races. For me, I don't know the answer, but I think spreading them out a little bit is probably a better move and if that means reducing it a little bit, then so be it.

We used to start the season in Argentina or Brazil or wherever in January and I think finish in Australia sometimes in November. Is there any reason we can't expand the envelope of the season or does it have to be in the window that it is for car-build reasons and things like that?

I kind of like the idea of expanding it a bit regardless of the number of… having done world rally for the last three years, it seems to work quite well there. You know, you don't have the time obviously to do so much testing. Obviously in rallying, usually you're not doing a new car every year. So if you tie it in with some of the other proposals, maybe spreading it out a little bit and giving people a bit more time between races, not only on the provider side, on our side, as Ron says it's very intense for every team member at the moment but also for the public point of view, maybe there's some merit in that. The rally side starting the third week of January in Monte Carlo seems to work quite nicely. Just means you can't spend all that time running around in circles in Barcelona or Jerez which may be positive.

Given there's a fair likelihood that this championship could go to the wire and some things may have to in some way or other implement team orders to perhaps win the World Championship, do you think F1 is better served by banning team orders and having you guys play dumb and perhaps not admit that you are perhaps manipulating the results or would you rather have it open so the public would know what the true results were?

When we get in that position, I'll let you know. (Laughter)