Fry denies Honda under pressure from Japan

On the back of their troubled 2007 campaign, team chairman Yasuhiro Wada said at the team's official launch this week that he would not accept another 'mistake' from the team.

But Fry has said that the tone of Wada's comments was fully understandable and that everyone at the team was keen for an upturn in form.

When asked by autosport.com if there was a growing sense of impatience from Honda's senior management, Fry said: "Yes, is the absolute answer. But it is a yes, and it is no different from any of us.

"I think people make the mistake sometimes of trying to separate out the company, the owner as in Honda, and the team, as in Honda Racing F1, or Honda R&D, and they are the same. This is not like a situation where a car manufacturer is supplying an engine to a team: we are all the same.

"This is Honda and we just happen to be the F1 team part of Honda. Wada-san is our umbilical cord on the commercial side, and (Shuhei) Nakamoto-san is in a similar position on the engineering side. But there is no difference.

"The attitude of Honda of being impatient is only a reflection of the views of the rest of us."

He added: "Honda are determined to succeed. There is and has never been a timeframe associated with Honda's involvement. They assume to be going on ad infinitum, as far as we can tell."

Fry also said he had complete belief that Jenson Button would remain fully committed to Honda Racing's cause, even if the team had not made a big step forward by the start of the season.

"Jenson has been incredibly loyal to the team and also part of the management of the team. He, like us, expects to see progress, and I don't think it will necessarily affect Jenson's demeanour if we are not at the front of the grid for the first couple of races.

"But he expects to see progress, I expect to see progress, Ross (Brawn) expects to see progress, and progress we will have."