No added pressure from Honda, says Fry

The Japanese carmaker is now the owner of the team after buying all the stakes from British American Tobacco last year.

Honda will race under its own name and the team have set their sights on scoring several wins this season.

But despite Honda's increased presence, Fry says the pressure to win comes from the team themselves.

"I think the pressure is pressure that we put upon ourselves," said Fry during the launch of their new car in Barcelona.

"Obviously the team is out to win and we realise that is a difficult task, there are probably seven or eight teams on the grid that under the right circumstances could win a race and maybe eve more than that.

"So the competition is very strong. Honda has a huge heritage of winning in all forms of motorsport and that is what we are expected to do and that is what we are paid to do and will try to do. We want to be in a position where we can challenge for wins at every race.

"Am I saying we can win every race? Of course not. But it does mean we go to every race with a very competitive car, we want to be towards the front of the grid and if the cards fall our way we want to be in a position to want to win."

The BAR team failed to score a victory in seven seasons in Formula One.

The team boss claims that Honda's influence has been very positive so far, giving the team a sense of security.

"It gives us a good feeling of substance and security," he added. "There are huge resources behind the team now, the programme is now split three ways, the main ex-BAR operation at Brackley, the Honda facility in Bracknell and Tochigi in Japan.

"Obviously with such a huge company behind us with that level of technical resource it makes us feel good about the future."

Fry said the initial impressions of the new RA106 car have left Honda feeling confident they can fight for victories for most of the year.

"We are optimistic at the moment, the initial feedback from Anthony (Davidson), he has driven the car most so far, and did his bit of bedding in at Silverstone and it seemed to go pretty well.

"We are pleased we have got two cars here, we are pleased we have got two great drivers so we go forth optimistically."