By Phil Huff (23/07/2004)
July 23 2004

Otmar Szafnauer, Honda Racing's Vice President, sat in on the traditional 'Friday Five' press conference today, covering everything from engine rules to customer teams. Here's what he had to say. A question about the proposed new engine regulations due to come in over the next three years. Can I just see what you feel about them, what you agree with and don't agree with, etc.?

I want to point out that we do support the FIA's efforts in increasing the safety of the sport and I think the latest proposal just talks about the safety aspect, reducing the lap time. And we at Honda have worked closely with the other engine manufacturers and as was stated earlier there is going to be a meeting tonight, which we will attend and also support, to come up with proposals that would help, from an engine perspective, to reduce the speed of the car. We definitely will support that but there has to be in conjunction with the aerodynamic package which was talked about as well as the tyres. And I think if we do those things, the targets of the FIA will be achieved and we will increase the lap times, reduce the speeds of the cars and improve safety.

However, increasing the life of the engine to last two races instead of one, we don't think will have a big impact on performance and therefore won't enhance safety. And as for cost - which I don't think the FIA's efforts today are aimed at costs, they are just aimed at the safety aspect - we don't think we will save any money by having an engine that will last two races. Sure, we may have 18 less engines or perhaps 16 less engines in a year but I think the costs saving there may be made up by additional development costs.

And as for lower displacement in 2006, we are in favour of the targets of reducing power to increase safety. One way to do it is to have a 2.4-litre V8, which we are not against, but there are other ways, there is a capacity-reduced V10, which we can also support, but what we are definitely against is technological limitations, where we don't challenge our engineers any more - things like having minimum weight for engines and centre of gravities defined and bores and strokes and cylinder spacings defined, those things we don't want.

Any change in F1 regulations usually ends up costing money. What is the best way to cut speeds next year without adding to your costs?

The best way to do it is to implement the aerodynamic and tyre packages that have been discussed and to meet the target. It's a bit short notice for us to extend the engine life to two races now. Our engine's already designed, running on the dyno and in the development phase. It would cost us money now if we implemented that strategy, so maybe the most cost-effective way is to leave the engine formula as it is or perhaps introduce some of the changes that were proposed by the engine manufacturers' group such as banning some very expensive materials that can be introduced early and they have an effect on costs.

Ok, it sounds as though there is a little way to go yet in two months - now an individual question for all of you. Otmar, today Honda have announced a new agreement with BAR. What does that mean for the future? What have you been able to go ahead with now that perhaps you hadn't been able to go ahead with?

It is a multi-year agreement, a three-year agreement, with BAR and it is both an engine and a joint chassis development agreement. We are forever working closer with BAR and we are identifying our individual strengths and we are sub-dividing the work such that the things Honda are strong at, we focus on and the things that BAR are strong at, they focus on and we are working closer together on that. In the future you will see us working even more closely together. We are now studying bringing in more engineers from Japan into Brackley and vice-versa, so you may see some organisational changes because of it.

Could Honda provide an engine to another team in the next two years?

Our focus isn't to provide engines for another team, our focus is on BAR and to win the World Championship with BAR. However, if there was a sporting regulation like there is for the tyres that says if you're in Formula One you must provide two teams, we would be happy to go along with such a sporting regulation.

If you were able to see in Paulo Martinelli's (Ferrari engine chief) computer, what would you like to see, where would you look?

Yeah, congratulations to Ferrari, they have had a remarkable reliability record and, like many things in Formula One, I don't think it's just one area we would like to look in. It would be good to take the entire computer home and study it!

If you more or less all agree that the required three second lap time change can be acquired just by a tyre and aerodynamic package, why can't you agree that the engines are left alone for next year - as most of the people have started - which would probably cost less? And secondly, for those who support the 2.4-litre for 2006, do we really have to come down to 700 horsepower in a more cost-producing way, if there are other ways to reduce power, most likely by an engine lifetime extension which would also help the smaller teams, the independent teams to get engines cheaper and earlier than with this 2.4-litre?

We do support the FIA's aim on safety but the rule changes have to be implemented in such a way that they are not done very quickly. We need time to plan these things, so we would ask for time regardless of what the changes are.

We have heard a lot of different opinions here, a lot of different views. Bottom line, yes or no, do you think the engine manufacturers can come up with a rules package to satisfy the FIA in the two month deadline here?

I am confident that we can. We've had the best co-operation that I have ever seen with the engine manufacturers in our meetings leading up this. We've got a meeting again tonight and I am very confident that we can put a proposal together that will meet the needs of the FIA and that, at this time, is decreasing the speeds of the cars for safety. I don't think the cost issue is part of the FIA proposal.