006 'innovative and bolder'

The former Williams designer said that the 006 builds on all the lessons learned from its predecessor, which finished fifth in the constructors' championship.

"I am very confident that was have made another big step forwards with the BAR-Honda 006," said Willis. "It's a bolder car. Our main objective in 2003 was to establish a credible engineering base, and 2004 provides us with the opportunity to use that credibility and be innovative in design. There are a lot of new innovations on the car, some of which I'm going to try and keep secret for as long as I can.

"We are able to push the technology level higher this year. We now have extra resources of Honda engineers recruited into the BAR design team, and we are beginning to see the benefits of an integrated, stable engineering base. The partnership with Honda gets better all the time."

Willis pointed to the car's new carbon gearbox as one area that the team expects to find a significant performance gain: "I think it's the best in F1. It's a bold step forward, but we felt we had the strength and depth in the team to do it."

Despite rule changes over the winter, Willis believes that BAR will have a stable platform from which to start from in Melbourne in March.

"It has been a big challenge, particularly with the tough new engine regulations, but it has been 10 months in design and represents another milestone in our long-term strategy," he said. "The engine is smaller, and everything has been wrapped around it. We've got smaller packaging and better attention to detail."

"By the time the first race comes around, we will have completed almost three times as much testing as the same period last year, and that extra effort is already visible in our greatly improved reliability."