New Honda makes debut at Valencia

After the team's troubled 2007 campaign, they are hoping that the new car will allow them to return to the form that saw them emerge as a threat to Ferrari and McLaren back in 2006.

Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry told autosport.com late last year: "We will have our ups and downs and over a long season; that is inevitable. But I don't see any reason why we cannot get back to where we were at the end of 2006.

"It is the same team of people, with a lot of good extra people on top of that, and the progress with the car looks promising.

"We obviously don't know where other people are, but I don't think it is unreasonable to presume that during the course of 2008 we will be able to get back to where we were in 2006 - which is going to races with full confidence that we can score points."

The car will be tested at Valencia for the rest of this week, prior to its official launch at the team's Brackley factory next Tuesday.