Fry: Willis could return.

Honda team chief Nick Fry has admitted that Geoff Willis could yet remain with the team, despite the appointment of Shuhei Nakamoto as senior technical director earlier this week.

The decision to promote Nakamoto from his role as engineering director for Honda Racing Development has led to Willis being placed on gardening level, with many expecting it to signal the end of his time with the team he joined back in 2002.

However, speaking to the press ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Fry said that there was a chance that Willis could take up another role with the team once he has had time to reflect on the changes within the team - with a decision likely to be taken one way or the other after the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis next weekend.

"Geoff is on gardening leave at the moment 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," Fry said. "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.

"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. So relations are good. I've worked with Geoff 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."

The backroom upheaval within the team came about following a disappointing start to the season for the team, which culminated in a poor British Grand Prix when Jenson Button qualified only 19th and retired early on and Rubens Barrichello also failed to score.

However Fry insisted that, despite the lack of form and changes within the team, morale wasn't a problem.

"People have never let their heads drop," he said. "Our team has obviously not been around a lot - less time than some of the others around me, and in that time, we've had ups and downs and changes. They could let their heads drop, but one of the things I've found remarkable is the way they continue to bash on. When I started at the team, four years ago, we made it clear things were going to get harder, not easier.

"The higher we got up the grid, the tougher it would get, so there's been a realisation right from the start that this was gonna be tough and to beat a team that's been in the sport for 40 years in the case of McLaren or 55 years in the case of Ferrari, was gonna be tough. We're the new boys and we're gonna have to work very hard to catch up. Obviously events like the British Grand Prix at the start of the week was a surprise and in some cases a shock, people tend to get down to business after 24 hours.

"Obviously after the chitchat of the wives and the workforce goes down, I think people are very effective of getting their heads down, not looking back and just getting on with it. It's good and lets hope the same goes for both the drivers."