Willis: new car a good step forward

The BAR team, renamed Honda after the Japanese giant bought all stakes last year, failed to live up to the expectations created in 2004, when they finished in second place behind the dominant Ferrari team.

But 2005 was a tough season for BAR, who started the year with the clear goal of scoring their first race win and ended up scoring just two podium finishes on their way to sixth place in the standings.

But Willis believes the new car, unveiled today at the Barcelona circuit, will help the team achieve their first win.

"The new RA106 is the product of four years of steady evolution," said Willis. "During this time, the team has developed a high level of technical capability which now sees it designing, manufacturing and operating at the highest level on the grid.

"The emphasis now is on integration and combining our design concepts and expertise to achieve a car capable of challenging for race wins.

"One of our key areas of focus has been aerodynamics, the design considerations for which were two-fold - the aero problem that we faced in 2005 and achieving a significant improvement in aerodynamic efficiency to meet the requirements of the new, smaller V8 engine and its implications on chassis design.

"We are pleased with the progress we have made in the wind tunnel over the winter and our data shows that we have made a good step forward. Mechanically, in keeping with the evolutionary theme we have refined our various concepts including our third generation carbon composite gearbox."

Willis is also confident the new Honda V8 engine will prove competitive enough to be at the top.

"Honda has produced a new engine to meet the challenge of Formula One's switch from V10 to V8 power. The new RA806E is the result of a very intensive year's work with many concepts designed and tested since the prototype first ran in May 2005.

"Since the latest specification started running in November 2005, the team has been encouraged by its reliability and performance."