How far advanced are you with the 2009 regulations and do you think they will provide better racing?

We are happy with the way things are progressing but until we hit the track we don't know where the reference points are. But we have put everything we can into next year's car and I don't think there is much else we could have done. In terms of racing I do think the overtaking working group did a good job, it is really a question of whether the cars we end up with are the ones they envisaged we'd end up with. If they don't, then maybe we will have to look at some tuning of the regulations in the future.

I understand there is still a search for cost cutting measures amongst the teams.  Where would you like to see cost cutting taking place?

I think all the teams work in an efficient way. I don't think the teams waste money but some of the activities we pursue are very expensive. We have to see if there are areas of the car where we are pursuing competitive advantage which is particularly expensive. At the moment aerodynamics are still the cheapest form of performance but we have to pursue all the other areas because we are all doing it. If you take transmissions, for example, at the moment we have all got quick shift transmissions. They are all fairly expensive pieces of kit and they are not really a strong performance differentiator, so there are areas where we could either standardise or commonize the technology and remove them from the equation. I think teams are looking seriously at those sorts of initiatives. As John mentioned we are all concerned about the survival of the independent teams. If we lose the two or three independent teams involved in Formula One, we are going to look quite sad. I think we have to, for the good of the sport and for the good of Formula One and for us to be involved in Formula One and it has to be a healthy formula, then we need to see if we can introduce initiatives which help the independent teams.

The Alonso situation with Honda?

Nothing to report.

No further progress?

No.

When would you expect progress?

I think when Fernando decides where he wants to go.

So it is down to him now?

Yes.

We have had a number of incidents with pit stops. Given that pit stops tend to distort the results somewhat, do you think the time has come to discontinue pit stops so we can concentrate on the racing?

I think it's a pretty exciting part of the event for the spectators, for viewers and for the team. It's a part of the race that all the team get involved in, most of the team. None of our team… they're all volunteers effectively, what they do, it's exciting for them, they enjoy it. There is a small risk involved but I don't think that the injuries that have occurred so far are terribly serious. I just think a race could easily be very boring without the pit stops. The scenarios that evolve around safety cars, because of the pit stops; the scenarios that evolve around qualifying - what weight do you qualify with? All those sort of things, if they disappeared, I think there is a strong chance that we would find the racing even more tedious than some of the races we have now. Valencia was a pretty boring race, but some of the events that happened which we have spoken about today wouldn't have occurred without pit stops. I think it's quite an entertaining part of the sport and before we take it away we shouldn't be looking back with rose-tinted spectacles, thinking it was all so wonderful a few years ago because it wasn't.

Obviously, when you look at the share prices of the big car companies that are involved in Formula One at the moment and the state of the market, it would be easy to draw the conclusion that the main boards must be very keen to reduce costs as much as you within the sport and the political figures within the sport want to reduce them as well. But what's the reality? Have the main boards of the car companies that you're involved in, have they made any requests to you to put some real pressure on you to get costs down?

I think all the automotive manufacturers are in it to win and so that's the main reason for being involved. I think all of them would like to win for the minimum cost, so they are keen on any initiatives which can reduce the cost base but they are here to try and win, so that's the priority. But we're all subject to the commercial pressures of the world. It's a tough time out there at the moment. I think all the companies involved in Formula One are being asked to be particularly prudent at this stage. I think if we can introduce initiatives, where we can remove some of the technology which is not differentiating the teams, then Honda would be supportive of that.

Are you completely confident that one or more of your competitors is not in any way gaining engine horsepower by bending the engine freeze rules?

I think the process which is in place is pretty robust. I don't suspect there has been too much going on. There is still an open point on 'do you want to fix a reliability problem because you've changed something else?' Let's say you run a different fuel and you start to have piston problems, do you apply for a piston modification? What's the situation? That's a little bit grey but I think the FIA are aware of that and the teams are aware of that and they try to seek further clarification if they feel a modification might be linked to a performance gain from another area. Whilst we froze the engines, we didn't freeze the oil, we didn't freeze the fuel, we didn't freeze a lot of the other peripherals around the engine. But I think the process is pretty robust, I don't think there's any bending going on. I think it's a competitive environment and we're in it because we're competitive individuals. The only thing that's a little bit difficult - as Martin touched on, a lot of it may be speculation - is that we freeze a design or we homologate a design or we standardise a design, it's because we see perhaps there's very little performance differential between the teams and we can afford to freeze it. It would be unfair to freeze something where you then build in a performance advantage for the teams that may have an advantage for the period that it's frozen and I think that's where this speculation has started from because some teams perceive that other teams have more power and there's nothing that we can do about it. And of course it's all speculation, but that's the nature of what we're involved in. It could be good for there to be considered a way of confirming the situation, so that we can put that all to one side and get on with the rest of the things but I think that when the engines were frozen, at that stage there was a perception that everyone was at a pretty similar level. I didn't hear any disquiet when that process was suggested. There is some disquiet now, as you know, so either things changed between when it was decided to freeze them and they were actually frozen, or people are just uncomfortable now because they are not competitive enough. I think it's always delicate if you freeze something where there's a potential to be performance differences between the teams. And we've really moved the engine out of the equation now, there's no development going on with the engine. It's a bracket between the chassis and the gearbox now. We can't do anything with it. But of course if one team does have an advantage there's nothing you can do about it. It's possibly just a concern for further technical restrictions in the future because the more we restrict the chassis, those teams that feel that they may be disadvantaged in the engine department will be more reluctant to make changes to other areas of the car, which would then give them less scope to redress the balance. If we had completely standard cars, different engines, then the engine would be the only variable. So we've got to make sure we leave enough left in the car that we don't just form up a grid based on the engine performance.

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