Thursday 2 April at 10:01 : Apr.2 (GMM) As he switched on his mobile phone following the flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur, Nick Fry began to field numerous calls from potential sponsors of the Brawn team

The former Honda squad arrived in Melbourne last week with a blank-liveried car, but also with the favourites tag that lured Virgin's Sir Richard Branson and his cheque-book to the Australian city

A pending full Virgin sponsorship is now worth many millions of euros, and team chief executive Fry admits other brands are also lining up to be associated with Brawn's success

He told the Times newspaper that many of those interested are British household names, buoyed by Brawn's link with its Brackley base

"People sense that this is a British team and they want to have that link," he said. "There is no doubt that Jenson's victory has performed wonders for us

"Apart from Virgin, we hope to have other companies on board as soon as we can," Fry added