Honda play down Barrichello's problems

Barrichello failed to make it past the first knockout session in qualifying, despite teammate Jenson Button putting the same car on pole position, and the Brazilian will start the Australian Grand Prix from a lowly 16th at a track that is notoriously difficult to overtake.

Fry said that the team and driver were clearly disappointed with the way the early part of the year had panned out, but he said it was too early for Barrichello's troubles to be a major worry.

"It is clearly a concern, but it is early days," said Fry. "We have got to remember that we are only at the third race of the season, but if midway through the season we are in the same position then that will be a cause for concern.

"At the moment we have got to continue to work with Rubens and hopefully tomorrow he can score points. The car is quick and the driver is quick, but there was a particular set of circumstances and the luck didn't fall his way.

"In the last race in Malaysia, without the stop-go penalty, he would have been seventh after a fairly weak position on the grid and if he has a clean race tomorrow then he has the capability personally and with the car to get points. That is what we try to need to do."

Fry believes that the mixture of traffic and tyre choice were the key factors in Barrichello failing to make it through to the second session of qualifying.

"I think it demonstrates some of the vagaries of this qualifying system and you can get caught out," he explained. "We got caught out on two counts.

"One is that we kept Rubens on a used set of tyres and we thought that was enough, but it clearly wasn't. And he had a bit of traffic as well. If it had been one or other, if we had traffic but new tyres he would probably have been okay, or vice versa.

"But the combination of the two just tipped him over the qualifying line, which is extremely disappointing because he can do it and the car can do it. His luck will change though."

Fry believes that Barrichello is experienced enough to resolve the issues he is having by himself, although the team would be doing everything they could to help him.

"Rubens is not a 20-year-old. He is a 30-year-old and he has been around motorsport a lot. He knows things go in patches. Sometimes you go through a bit of a bad patch and then you go through a period of unrelenting good fortunes.

"Both eventually come to an end - you don't have good luck the whole time and you don't have bad luck the whole time.

"It is a matter of keeping our heads down, keep working at it and clearly he is disappointed. You would have to be inhuman not to be and we would have to be inhuman not to be disappointed for him.

"But he knows that if we continue to work at it, he will be fine. The team has got the capability and the driver has got the capability, and Rubens has not lost that innate driving skill overnight."