Honda: we are lagging behind Cosworth

Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda's F1 engineering director, is adamant that despite the early promise shown by the RA106 there is plenty of room for improvement - especially on the engine front.

In particular he believes that the performance of rival engine manufacturer Cosworth should act as a wake-up call to the team's engineers in Japan to make improvements to Honda's own power-unit.

"At the moment Cosworth has done a good job and we are trailing behind them," he told autosport.com during testing at Jerez in Spain. "We should be able to produce better engines than we have now.

"If we had the engine of that level (of Cosworth) in our car, then probably we will be able to beat Renault. But we have not, so we have got some work to do."

Cosworth's new V8 engine has impressed Williams and onlookers with its power and high-revving capabilities.

Mark Webber admitted yesterday that the engine was 'bloody good', while managing director Tim Routsis said at the launch of the new Williams car last month that he believed his company's engine was one of the best in the field.

"My best opinion is that at the moment we are giving away very little to anybody, if anything," said Routsis. "But it will become much clearer in the run up to Bahrain."

Despite Nakamoto's comments on the performance of Honda's engine, he believes that Honda Racing's chassis is a big step forward over last year's BAR007 - and should allow the team to return to the form it showed in 2004.

"I am reasonably happy with the programme so far and Jenson has done lots of long runs, and he is comfortable with the car," added Nakamoto. "Also, Barrichello is getting there too.

"We still have a lot more to come from fine tuning the chassis and the engine, and I think we are much closer to the performance of 2004. In fact, we should be better as we have gained experience in 2005 so we will not make the (strategy) mistakes we made in 2004."