Nick Fry To Face The Sack?

In the wake of my previous entry on this Blog comes this story on Pitpass. Apparently Autosport ran a headline to this effect but was immediately pulled out of their website.

It might just be wild speculation but given the dismal results of the Honda engined BAR team, could this report be true?

Gil de Ferran has been named as a likely successor to Nick Fry after numerous victories with Honda engined cars in the Champcars. Gil de Ferran is quite an accomplished driver winning the British Formula 3 and Indycar World Series titles in 2000 and 2001.

I can't remember exactly but wasn't this bloke a old close friend of Ayrton Senna?

Whatever the case may be, he doesn't have any team management experience at all. So indeed, why would Honda consider him right now? Especially when the hour is getting late and their needs are best served by an experienced manager. Gil de Ferran, like Bobby Rahal at Jaguar, doesn't have any Formula 1 experience to speak of. And frankly, the world of the Champcar team is vastly different to the Formula 1 environment.

Perhaps Honda wants to be rid of any Prodrive influences in the BAR team, in which they now own a substantial stake. But to take on someone like de Ferran would be even worse than their decision to terminate David Richard's services.

Considering that it took years and lots of stability for Jean Todt to turn Ferrari's fortunes around, any rocking of the boat right now could spell further disaster for BAR.