Australia: Q and A with Nick Fry

By BAR F1
March 4 2005

Nick Fry, CEO at Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda joined a select few F1 team bosses at the Friday FIA Media Conference in Melbourne - this is what he had to say:

Q: In the end, I believe, you signed the document supporting Minardi. The Stewards have made their own decision. What is your feeling?

NF: I think it is good that the teams eventually all stuck together and tried to be supportive of Paul Stoddart, but at the end of the day the referee is the referee and the sport does need to have an independent referee and I think they made a brave decision and good on them.

Q: Nick, your new to the job... How much have things changed for you?

NF: New to the job but not new to the team and worked with David (Richards) the last four years, the last three as MD. A lot of it is much the same with additional responsibility of doing things like this. Having Honda on board as 45 per cent owners has made life much easier and a lot of barriers have come down and communication is much easier and we can draw on their resources and I am having a blast.

Q: But you were second last year...

NF: Yes, different objectives. Obviously last three years we've gone from eighth to fifth to second and it has been a great improvement but we didn't win a race and we were a country mile behind Ferrari. So, we shouldn't pat ourselves too much on the back. Our objective this year is to win a race even if we have to compromise our championship position somewhat, we will make the trade-off. It is good fun. We have a highly-motivated team and two hugely-motivated drivers and a great team spirit. We will go for it.

Q: You have a marketing strategy for a fun factor for Formula One. Is that going to carry on and develop?

NF: From our side, we have to recognise that we are competing as a sport with a whole bunch of other sporting activities like watching Desperate Housewives or American Idol, or whatever it happens to be. And I think there is an increasing realization that while Formula One is very popular our school reports tend to say 'could do better'. And that's what we have to do. Adding more entertainment and listening to the fans.

Q: Nick you said that the fun factory has to be brought out, that you're working for the man in the stands but with the new rules today we saw very little traffic, ten, 12, 15 laps in practice. The people in the grandstand didn't get to see many Formula One cars, and with no pole on Saturday. How do you think the public will react to those changes.

NF: I think that we're really looking towards the future rather than what's going on at the moment and I think it could be improved. From my personal point of view it's not optimal and it would be rather confusing if I were a customer of Formula One. The work that Christian and I trying to do with some of the other teams is redefine where we go from here after the end of the Concorde Agreement. We've got to look forwards and we've got to look outwards, towards with competing with other disciplines, other sports and other activities and we all want to be successful and certainly Honda are in this for the long run. This is not just a short term activity and what we want to do is built the popularity to reach everyone's objectives, so our objectives are rather longer term than just commenting on what we should do tomorrow, but I think there's a commonly held belief that we probably haven't found the optimal solution yet.

Q: You seem to agree that the optimal situation is not here. Do you have any ideas to bring about that optimal solution?

NF: I think the answer is no, not the ones that I would be prepared to throw out. I think that frankly this is part of the problem, is that some of the solutions and some of the changes that are made really don't have the level of analysis that they should do, and I that knee jerk reactions are exactly the wrong thing to do. This is a big sport, lots of money involved, lots of people involved, lots of livelihoods and I think we should maybe a bit more considered in judgments rather than just chucking out stuff. I don't think we're short of ideas but it's a matter of developing stuff which is properly researched and properly thought through rather than just coming up with stuff on the hoof which sometimes doesn't have the required outcome and ends up costing even more money which is completely counterproductive.

Q: Speaking to people at BAR, you get the impression that over the winter the Honda takeover is happening quicker than many people expected it to happen, or certainly the influence of Honda is growing quite quickly. When are we likely to see a team called Honda in Formula One and is this process perhaps being accelerated by the July 31st tobacco sponsorship deadline?

NF: Ok, a variety of questions. I'm a bit surprised at what you say in terms of accelerating Honda involvement because there's really not been that much change. Mr Tanaka who was previously based at Bracknell where the engines are built in the UK is now alongside me in the office next door and there are a couple of other extra people but apart from that, frankly there's been that much change and I think the commonly held view is that the changes have been for the good because people on site, we can make decisions that much quicker than we could before. I think all that has been positive. There isn't any intention at the moment to change the name of the team or for Honda to own all of the team. British American Tobacco are passionate about supporting the sport and at the moment, our assumption is that we are not going to do anything different after July. We don't think the British government ever intended for the so-called extra territoriality to have the effect that some people predict. We've consistently asked for clarification and no clarification has been given, so where sit at the moment we are just going to continue, or planning to continue as we are. As far as BAT involvement, it will make no difference whatsoever. Our funding is now semi-independent of that and BAT is committed to the team. I think we are probably in a lucky and unique position that we've got two completely blue chip partners as 55 and 45 per cent shareholders so our future is secure and for us the objective is to win World Championships, simple as that.

Q: Flavio Briatore suggested only this week a more sensible way to run Grand Prix weekends would be to have testing on Friday, qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday. It seems a very sensible idea. What are your reactions?

NF: I think anything that moves towards less testing and focus on racing ? I think we often hear complaints about doing 19 races, but there are Nascars doing I think 38. And frankly doing things in front of fans and customers seems to be a better way to conduct the sport so generally that would be a positive mood.

Q: If that is the case why is it so difficult to make it happen?

NF: You've got three of us here and you need ten to agree. I think it's a good idea and Flavio has a lot of ideas in that respect because he is focused on the marketing and the good competition side of it. If it is exactly the right solution, I don't know. I think we need to take a bit of time as we are at the moment, certainly among the nine teams, to determine exactly that format.

Q: On the basis of what you have seen today, who will the race on Sunday?

NF: We will be disappointed if we are not on the podium. We expected the McLarens to be strong and they are so if it is one of the McLarens we wont be surprised.