Fry cautious on first impressions

Honda CEO Nick Fry answers questions on the day the new RA107 is launched

Q: Nick Fry, second day of testing with the new car and the first problems already. What happened with Jenson's car?

Nick Fry: I think it's a bit harsh to say problems already. The car tested on Monday in Silverstone and yesterday here in Barcelona all day with Rubens driving. This morning just a wire came off the gearbox, something that can be fixed very easily. So no big deal.

Q: Now (Christian) Klien is driving the old car.

NF: We've got two cars here. We've got one of the last year's cars, as planned, and the new car. We'll continue in that way, with an old car and the new car, until the next week or so and then two new cars after that.

Q: Will Jenson drive again later today?

NF: I don't know what the plan is at the moment, I've not been in the pits. Maybe Rubens will drive this afternoon and Jenson tomorrow. So we'll see how it goes.

Q: Which are your first impressions of the new car?

NF: Well, Rubens' first impressions are good, but I think for all teams to make any claims at this time of the year is probably very dangerous. The track temperature is only five degrees so the amount you can really find out about a Formula One car under these condictions is somehow limited. Rubens had a good impression yesterday but we have to do more testing before we have real impressions.

Q: The other teams running on Michelin said the tyre switch brought them to the wind tunnel again. Was it the same for you?

NF: It has taken obviously some work because the tyres are different, but the biggest difference is about the geometry of suspensions. But because we were working with Bridgestone just a couple of years ago, obviously we had some knowledge of the Bridgestone tyres.

We tested six different suspension geometries before Christmas and chose the one we think is best. We've done most of that work on the suspension system and the impressions on both the old and the new car are good. We've had no issues with changing to the Bridgestone tyres.

-credit: www.f1grandprix.it