HONDA F1

Fry does not hide it rain tenders

None of the seats of the two pilots are insured Honda this season, as has warned the team leader Nick Fry. Both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello are left without a contract at the end of the year, and Fry said that the team located in Brackley is becoming an attractive proposition for other talented drivers in the market.

Honda are ready to turn their attention to their 2009 car after just seven races into the 2008 season.

The Brackley-based outfit have struggled to keep up with the midfield pack and are a disappointing eighth in the Constructors' Championship.

The team have already signed off the final current year developments and will now put all their design efforts into the car for next year.

"There are just two or three things we are doing with this year's car, so there will be a phased introduction of (new parts) that will start at Silverstone," team principal Ross Brawn was quoted by Autosport.

"It is just a question of making the bits now. The concept work has been done on these new areas and they are being detailed and manufactured at the moment."

Honda's F1 CEO Nick Fry says their poor performances this season left them with little option, but to focus on next year's car.

"What we need to be able to do to beat Ferrari and McLaren on a good day and it is clear we are not going to do that this year."

Nick Fry has denied reports that IndyCar race winner Danica Patrick is scheduled to test for Honda later this year.

According to reports in the Austrian media, Fry has agreed to test Patrick, who claimed her breakthrough Indy victory in Japan earlier this year, when the F1 season ends in November.

"We will put her into our car after the season at the latest and see how quick she is," Fry reportedly told Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

The Honda CEO, though, has denied ever saying this, stating that there are no plans in place to test Patrick.

"There has been no contact between us," he told Autosport.

"But if Danica did want to test one of our cars, we would be more than happy to speak to her about it."

Danica Patrick may after the current Formula 1 season probably her first meters in an F1 car. HondaRacing director Nick Fry has the driver a test in an F1 car of Honda in the prospect. Probably in november this year may include them in a car from the Japanese team driving.

Fry says in Kronen Zeitung: "After the season we will give her the chance to enter a Formula 1 car to test and then we shall see how fast it is." Patrick won earlier this year as the first woman a race in the IRL IndyCar. The U.S. has its ambition to the king class of motorsports never to get under seating compartment.

Rubens survives incident-filled race in Montreal to finish seventh; Jenson comes home 11th.

The Honda Racing F1 Team picked up two more World Championship points this afternoon when Rubens Barrichello finished seventh in a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix. Jenson Button, who started the 70-lap race from the pitlane, came home in 11th place.

Rubens drove a tenacious race from start-to-finish. After starting ninth, his track position was helped on lap 17 by the deployment of the safety car, which resulted in the front-runners pitting and then crashing into each other at the exit of the pitlane. Rubens stayed out and ran second to Nick Heidfeld, before leading the race for seven laps ahead of his only pitstop of the race on lap 36.

Once the race had settled down, Rubens was running fourth when battling with a lack of grip which caused him to run wide going into turn 4 on lap 59. This enabled Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli to squeeze through, dropping him to sixth. Rubens battled hard to defend his position in the remaining 11 laps and whilst Felipe Massa got by, he managed to keep Sebastian Vettel at bay to cross the line in seventh position.

“I’m pleased with the two points today,” said Rubens, “particularly as we thought our chances of a points finish were slim when we started the weekend. It was a very tough race and I have not been feeling well since yesterday due to a cold, which made it an even tougher physical challenge.

“Yesterday I didn’t know if I was going to be well enough to race, so all things considered we did a good job today and I'm pleased to keep up the points-scoring momentum from Monaco."

Jenson, meanwhile, faced an uphill struggle from the pitlane. He ended the opening lap in 20th place, before battling his way up to seventh position prior to making his final pitstop on lap 53. He rejoined in 11th place where he remained for the duration of the race.

"It was a very tough and ultimately disappointing race today,” commented Jenson. “It's always difficult starting from the back of the grid and we were using a set-up that we hadn't run previously this weekend. Things didn't quite go our way with the strategy and safety car which meant I was unable to make any progress up the field by the end of the race.”

Coming away from Canada, Team Principal Ross Brawn said: “We always knew this was going to be a tough race for us but we made the best of the opportunities and came away with more points. That is the approach we need to maintain. We are heading to Barcelona next week ahead of the French Grand Prix (22 June) in Magny-Cours, where the higher downforce characteristics of this track and potentially high temperatures will suit our car better.”

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button have their qualification for the Grand Prix of Canada with varying results. Barrichello set a fine performance by the top ten to qualify. Jenson Button had another bad session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Barrichello: "I am very happy for the team and myself. After we scored the points in Monaco, this is obviously a great result and a super start of the weekend. In hot conditions, the circuit there quickly deteriorated. I absolutely had to the clean lines remain outside it was very smooth. I could use my good experience here today, took a few nice times. The ninth position is nice to start. Tomorrow is a beautiful race. "

Barrichello's teammate Button was again not for the display and was disappointed. Button: "I had a problem with my third gear and that meant the end of my qualification. It is generally so far a bad weekend. We need tomorrow but will see how the race will expire. I have all the opportunities that me forward intervene. "

Button started the race tomorrow from the nineteenth position, as Barrichello may start the ninth.

Rubens did a great job today. Tanks
Honda f1 fan

		driver	team	time	difference	#
1.		L. Hamilton	McLaren	1:15.752		42
2.		R. Kubica	BMW Sauber BMW Sauber	1:16.023	+0.271 +0,271	41
3.		K. Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:16.093	+0.341 +0,341	39
4.		H. Kovalainen	McLaren	1:16.331	+0.579 +0,579	36
5.		F. Massa Bulk	Ferrari	1:16.413	+0.661 +0,661	27
6.		N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber BMW Sauber	1:16.589	+0.837 +0,837	43
7.		M. Webber	Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing	1:16.604	+0.852 +0,852	39
8.		N. Rosberg	Williams	1:16.767	+1.015 +1,015	37
9.		S. Vettel	Toro Rosso Toro Rosso	1:17.019	+1.267 +1,267	43
10.		J. Trulli	Toyota	1:17.068	+1.316 +1,316	46
11.		K. Nakajima	Williams	1:17.242	+1.490 +1,490	37
12.		D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing	1:17.334	+1.582 +1,582	29
13.		R. Barrichello	Honda	1:17.462	+1.710 +1,710	39
14.		G. Fisichella	Force India Force India	1:17.508	+1.756 +1,756	39
15.		T. Glock	Toyota	1:17.549	+1.797 +1,797	31
16.		S. Bourdais	Toro Rosso Toro Rosso	1:17.559	+1.807 +1,807	38
17.		F. Alonso	Renault	1:17.644	+1.892 +1,892	30
18.		A. Sutil	Force India Force India	1:17.813	+2.061 +2,061	37
19.		J. Button	Honda	1:17.842	+2.090 +2,090	39
20.		N. Piquet Jr. Piquet Jr.	Renault	1:18.076	+2.324 +2,324	17