Honda look to bolster technical team

While discussions continue between former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn and Honda's senior management about a possible deal for 2008, team boss Nick Fry has approached other senior staff at rival teams to try and bolster the outfit in the shorter term.

And with the team promoting chief race engineer Craig Wilson to the role of chief vehicle engineer, Fry has made it clear that changes need to be made for Honda to bounce back from the troubles they are having with their RA107.

"We're still a relatively young and inexperienced organisation," said Fry. "So we're continually looking to bolster and redefine our technical team. Obviously, our current situation has only accelerated that trend.

"At the moment we're talking to a number of people. But when you talk to the top guys in the sport they all generally tend to have a fair bit of notice to give on their contract.

"Consequently, I'm not anticipating making any key appointments until the end of the summer or into the autumn."

Fry is adamant that Honda can no longer afford to start a season with an uncompetitive car - something that he thinks can be eradicated by a new front-line technical team.

"It's all very well getting ourselves our of a difficult situation - which we've proved capable of doing in the past - but we need to avoid getting into that situation in the first place," he said.