MAY 13, 2006

Team bosses hail successful meeting

Team bosses Nick Fry and Ron Dennis have reacted to the meeting on Wednesday of the Formula 1 Sportring Working Group, that decided to propose the abolition of the idea of engine homologation.

"It was the first of the sporting working groups established by the FIA and the processes that were put in place are ones that we applaud," said Fry. "It is democratic and based on majority voting. The people that were at the meeting were people of huge credibility and people who have spent a lot of their lives in Formula 1. I don't want to do a roll call, but we had Stefano Domenicalli from Ferrari, Dave Ryan from McLaren, Ron Meadows from our own team, Steve Nielsen from Renault - they're people who really do know about Formula 1. One of the things that was very encouraging is that theses people voted with extreme conviction and it was good that every vote was carried by a majority of eight or nine of the 12, so it's very encouraging that three quarters of the field agreed. Were votes all votes that we at Honda would like? I have to say no, but some we like and some we didn't like so much, but the process was one that looks a good one. I think if the majority vote for or against something and they're people of that credibility, then we'd go along with it like a good process. Obviously the outcome of that meeting has be ratified by the following groups: The Formula 1 Commission and the World Council, but with that sort of majority I'd expect things to be carried through."

Ron Dennis said that he was "encouraged by the fact that it was a democratic vote and it was not difficult to understand. All the people that went there had to work hard to understand the subjects and took a lot of time to prepare for the meeting. I'm sure that their objectives were very consistent with mine and many others in F1. If that's the way we build the future - by a democratic process of evaluating all the options that unfold and that will be positive for Formula 1, but it's got to be democratic and all the way democratic and that's what I hope to have."