F1 RACING DECEMBER 2019 89
Post-Kallakis, Fryand Brawnbecame increasingly
despondent of finding a genuine buyer,especially
if it was goingto cos t £10,000 a pop forKroll
to “look under every rock”. When a putative
acquisition by Richard Branson’s Virgin empire
fell down, a managementbuy-out became the
only option. Itwas a credible wayout for Honda,
which otherwisewould be faced with asubstantial
bill for making 700 people redundant.Thedeal
was for £1 plus liabilities, andHondawould
providea parachute payment to enable the team
to operate – just – for one season.
As is well documented, the car Honda spent
the entiretyof2008 designing for 2009’s
new rules package was excellent,even when
compromised byhavinga Mercedes engine
shoehorned in.Jenson Button won the season-
openingGP, attracting freshinterestfrom other
possible buyers, including Bernie Ecclestone.
Fry was summoned to ameeting at Formula One
Management’s Princes GateHQ, where Bernie’s
opening gambit was rather pithy: “Hello, Nick.
Max [Mosley] thinks you’re a c**t.”
NickFry:“Honda’s view was it wouldbe better to
shut it down than sellto someone inappropriate
and have griefthereafter. Ross and Iwere seen as
the best of a bad lot.So we bought it for apoun d.
And the first job, sadly, was to cut back from 700
people to 400. We wererunning on ashoestring.
“This wasa ti me whenthe teams weretrying
to negotiate a new commercial contract.Ferrari
were invariablyon B ernie’s side becausehegave
them the mostmoney. One ofthe mechanisms
Bernie tried [toinfluence voting inhis favour]
was to offer tobuy the team from us. We had
an entertainingconve rsation – in typicalBernie
fashionhe wa nted theteam but didn’t wantto pa y
much for it. So I was dispatched fromhis office
and I thinkhis wordswere ‘If you effing well think
you can do it yourself, then go an d do that...’“MAX
THINKS
YOU’RE A
@***...”
“WE GENUINELY DIDN’T KNOW HOW
QUICK THE CAR WAS. THE COMPUTER
SIMULATIONS, FRANKLY,
WE DIDN’T BELIEVE”
F1 RACING DECEMBER 2019 89
Post-Kallakis, Fryand Brawnbecame increasingly
despondent of finding a genuine buyer,especially
if it was goingto cos t £10,000 a pop forKroll
to “look under every rock”. When a putative
acquisition by Richard Branson’s Virgin empire
fell down, a managementbuy-out became the
only option. Itwas a credible wayout for Honda,
which otherwisewould be faced with asubstantial
bill for making 700 people redundant.Thedeal
was for £1 plus liabilities, andHondawould
providea parachute payment to enable the team
to operate – just – for one season.
As is well documented, the car Honda spent
the entiretyof2008 designing for 2009’s
new rules package was excellent,even when
compromised byhavinga Mercedes engine
shoehorned in.Jenson Button won the season-
openingGP, attracting freshinterestfrom other
possible buyers, including Bernie Ecclestone.
Fry was summoned to ameeting at Formula One
Management’s Princes GateHQ, where Bernie’s
opening gambit was rather pithy: “Hello, Nick.
Max [Mosley] thinks you’re a c**t.”
NickFry:“Honda’s view was it wouldbe better to
shut it down than sellto someone inappropriate
and have griefthereafter. Ross and Iwere seen as
the best of a bad lot.So we bought it for apoun d.
And the first job, sadly, was to cut back from 700
people to 400. We wererunning on ashoestring.
“This wasa ti me whenthe teams weretrying
to negotiate a new commercial contract.Ferrari
were invariablyon B ernie’s side becausehegave
them the mostmoney. One ofthe mechanisms
Bernie tried [toinfluence voting inhis favour]
was to offer tobuy the team from us. We had
an entertainingconve rsation – in typicalBernie
fashionhe wa nted theteam but didn’t wantto pa y
much for it. So I was dispatched fromhis office
and I thinkhis wordswere ‘If you effing well think
you can do it yourself, then go an d do that...’“MAX
THINKS
YOU’RE A
@***...”
“WE GENUINELY DIDN’T KNOW HOW
QUICK THE CAR WAS. THE COMPUTER
SIMULATIONS, FRANKLY,
WE DIDN’T BELIEVE”