25/06/2006
NEWS STORY
The Honda F1 team's CEO, Nick Fry has attempted to clarify the situation, following reports that technical director Geoff Willis has left the team.
Earlier this week, the Japanese team announced that Shuhei Nakamoto had been promoted to the role of chief technical director, with discussions due to take place with Willis in order to decide his future role.
Within 24-hours of the announcement, there were reports that Willis had chosen to leave the team, however, Fry denies this and claims that the Englishman is on 'gardening leave'.
"He's on gardening leave at the moment," said Fry in Montreal, "and discussions will continue over the next couple of weeks on what the future holds and that will be a mutual decision between ourselves, specifically myself and Geoff. But, as we're here in America at the moment and he's in England, that's something that probably won't be resolved until the week after we get back."
Asked if the 'gardening leave' is self-imposed, Fry replied: "No, no, no. Geoff remains a fully contracted employee of the team and I think it's mountain-biking leave actually. He's riding up and down hills and thinking about what he wants to do and it's something that we agreed mutually and the final outcome we will agree between us.
"Relations are good. I've worked with Geoffrey for the last four years and he's a personal friend as well as a work colleague and so I'm sure we can work something out which will suit him and us."
Asked if Willis opted for 'gardening leave' prior to Nakamoto's appointment, or in reaction to it, Fry said: "It all really happened at the same time. Geoff's role with the team has been a discussion between myself and him. We said, a month ago or so, that he would attend fewer races so we've been working on restructuring the whole thing. Obviously, this week we made some firmer decisions.
Fry then explained the chronology of events: "The chronology is quite simple. Clearly, this year's been disappointing, especially the last few races, especially after such a promising start pre-season and quite good performance in the first few races. The thing we're really trying to get is a very high level of integration between the people who work on the car in Japan and those in England. In some areas it's very good at the moment; in others less so, and that resulted in the appointment of Nakamoto-san, who I think is fairly well-known in Formula One circles. He's worked for our team in England for the last six years, obviously got a good knowledge of the English operation and has 17 years working on the racing side in Japan, so he's been nominated as the person to really put all this together and he will report to me.
"At the same time, we're making various other changes. The operational side was under Geoff. We're splitting that out. It will report separately to me and there are various changes on the Japanese management side as well. I think people have very much concentrated on Geoff and what will happen to him, but it really is part of a total restructure, a really much more flat structure than we've had up until this point in time, with the aim of involving, as far as practicable, as many people as possible, both here (in England) and in Japan. And so, hopefully, it's not a short-term plan. It's one that obviously needs time to bed down but it's hopefully aimed at improving our performance in the longer run."
All that aside, gardening leave is virtually always a precursor to departure, and it is absolutely certain that Willis will play no further part of the Honda F1 story. Then again, Pitpass hears that there will be further comings and goings - mostly goings - in the coming weeks.
Furthermore, we hear there is increasing pressure on Fry and that the smart money is on Otmar Szafnauer to step into the Englishman's boots. According to Pitpass' sources, there is resentment within the team at the way Willis and others have been treated, with some feeling that Fry is merely attempting to take the heat of himself.
Some feel that despite the "wealth of experience" that Nakamoto is bringing to the team, Willis, a late appointment by Craig Pollock, brought a "greater engineering and technical focus to the race car than ever before".
Our sources tell us that there is a palpable sense of fear at Brackley, as personnel, knowing that those at the very top are watching them, fear as to who will be the next scapegoat. Indeed we hear that notices have been placed around the factory advising employees not to speak to family, friends, suppliers to the team or the media regarding the current state of the team's performance or its drivers.