Fry: 11th Team Likely to Happen

Fry has been involved in the discussions with Honda about the new operation and claims that the next few weeks will be crucial to get it off the ground.

"I think there is a 65 percent chance of it happening - certainly better than evens," said Fry at Suzuka on Thursday. "If it was not that (likely), we would not be saying anything.

"But it is a tall order to put this type of thing together in six months."

Honda are believed to be the driving force behind the new team, even though they do not want the outfit to become a Honda B-team. It is believed that discussions are currently underway about how the team will be presented and exactly who will run it.

Fry has refused to give any further details about the new team plans but said he was confident they had the necessary technical and financial capabilities to run the team.

"It is going to be tough, no doubt about it, but Honda would not have mentioned this unless it was relatively credible," he added. "Discussions with us have been going on for a few months now and I am sure the potential new team has done its homework before that.

"You don't come out and say these things without a fair bit of activity having happened previously. It is going to be very difficult to do next year but we will try to do it and see what happens.

"We have been asked numerous times about the nationality, but we are not giving that away at this stage because it would point in a certain direction, but these are credible people with motor racing experience and the financial backing to do the job.

"We are not talking about an under-funded team here, and clearly they have convinced Honda, Bernie and us that this has got potential."

The new team are planning to run Honda V8 engines and, as Autosport-Atlas revealed, are set to land a deal for Bridgestone tyres.

And although it is expected that they will run versions of this year's BAR007, Fry has said that agreement on that detail has not yet happened.

Formula One's current rules outlaw teams from running chassis that have been built by other teams, but it is possible for teams to purchase the intellectual property rights to cars and then run them if they construct the cars themselves.

"Clearly there are well-defined rules in Formula One that spell out what you can and can't do but they do give the ability (to sell intellectual property rights) and we believe that is what Red Bull will do with their second team," said Fry.

"There are ways of meeting those regulations while giving a good level of technical support. The agreement is to supply engine and technical support, and the definition of technical support is open ended and what we have to do is obey the F1 rules.

"A chassis has to have certain criteria, so it will be down to them to convince the FIA that is what they have done."