Fry far from downhearted

For the first time this year, Honda emerged from a grand prix without a point to their name, with Jenson Button in particular suffering a wretched weekend at Silverstone.

Following his worst qualifying performance for three years, Button followed that up by sliding out on lap ten of the British Grand Prix due to an oil leak that led to his engine bursting into flames.

Team-mate Rubens Barrichello also struggled, finishing tenth despite a strong qualifying display to start sixth, to leave Fry picking up the pieces.

Then along came Sir Jackie Stewart to remind Fry that "it can get a lot worse".

Fry added: "He told me the story about when he once had two cars catch fire on the grid in Monaco.

"I'm sure it won't get any worse, and we are far from downhearted. We just have to move on and make the car go a little bit quicker.

"There's also tremendous camaraderie in the paddock. When people can see you are trying to do the right thing, even those in other teams, they try to encourage you.

"Obviously it was not the best day for us, but we've more bits going on the car for Montreal in two weeks' time, so we battle on.

"I certainly feel we can turn it round this year, as we did last year when we demonstrated what we can do.

"Last year we started with a poor car, but Jenson scored points in ten consecutive races in the second half of the season.

"We are still convinced that this car is good, but there are things we need to improve on to get the best out of it.

"So we are far from throwing the baby out with the bath water. The baby is actually pretty good. We just need to heat up the bath water."

Fry is convinced Button will emerge from a slump that has seen him claim just five points from his last six races, culminating in the nadir of a wretched weekend on home soil.

"One of the things to be admired about him is his ability to bounce back," commented Fry on Button.

"After the disappointment of Saturday he came in first thing Sunday full of bounce in his step because he was determined to get out there and show the British crowd what he can do.

"He wanted to put on a show, and he did that in getting past a few people on the first few laps.

"Unfortunately, he had the oil leak, but he came back thoroughly having enjoyed himself, although he was almost in tears because the British crowd had been so good to him.

"He had been given a huge round of applause, and there were people shouting out encouraging comments.

"I really do think he is in the hearts of a lot of people. They can see how hard he is trying, and that really lifted him.

"It's the same for all of us because I know when I left the paddock on Saturday there were a huge number of people encouraging us onwards and that helped to keep everyone going.

"In Jenson's case an enormous amount of people recognise his talents and know he is going to get there.

"With true British grit there is true British support."