Button gets vote of confidence

Symonds believes the young British driver's lack of pace is down to his unfamiliarity with the team he joined at the start of the year from Williams-BMW.

The 21-year-old has been out-qualifed by Italian team mate Giancarlo Fisichella seven times in eight races and is yet to score a point.

"Jenson is only slower than Giancarlo by a very small amount," said Symonds. "People underestimate the value of continuity. Giancarlo has been with us for a few years now and we know how he thinks, what he likes and he can relate to his engineers very well.

"This is something that comes from continuity and Jenson has not had that," he added. "There is no doubt in my mind that Jenson is a very rapid driver. I think he could do much better than we are allowing him to do at the moment.

"We are still learning about him and he is still learning about us. I really think it comes down to continuity and very little else."

Symonds said Benetton are still on course to introduce a significant engine development in two weeks time at Magny-Cours.

"We get new aerodynamic parts at every race, but the engine developments will come in Magny-Cours," he added. "We are hoping for a reasonable development for the next race."

Symonds, however, admits the team are still way off the pace.

"Until you are continually on pole and winning races, it is not good enough," he said. "We really need to get everything working. There is not one area we can single out and say this is where the car is defective. It is everything.

"I think we have suffered a lot this year by not being able to do as many test miles as we would like. Therefore, the general development of the chassis is lagging behind."