Brawn: Honda potential not seen yet

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello have found themselves near the bottom of the timesheets during early testing of their new car, prompting fears that the team could be set for a repeat of their disastrous 2007 campaign.

But Brawn is adamant that Honda are in much better shape than the testing times suggest, and he sees no reason why they are not on course to be challenging for wins and the championship within three years.

"I don't think what we are seeing on track, or will see on track, at the start of the season or the next few months, is actually the potential of the team," he said during a Honda motorsport press conference in Tokyo.

"I think the team has a very strong potential."

Brawn believes that the aerodynamic rules revamp planned for 2009, allied to the introduction of new technologies like Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), will allow teams like Honda to close the gap on established front-runners like McLaren and Ferrari.

"What is very important is 2009, because in 2009 there are new regulations. And that gives Honda a very strong opportunity to start with a blank sheet of paper," he said.

"The difficulty during each season is that if you have bad year then you have to do twice as much to catch up, because all the other teams are moving away from you.

"But in 2009 everyone is starting with new regulations and it is a very strong opportunity for us to become much more competitive. So in 2008 I am going to have to balance the resources for improving 2008 against investing in 2009.

"I am viewing our programme over at least three years - consolidation, strengthening and planning for the future. I am looking for a three-year plan for wining races and wining championships.

"We have to look at it over that period and not be overly concerned with the car we have now, because the car we have now is not a reflection of the people we have now - and it is the people who are most important."

In terms of the pace of the RA108, Brawn believes that an aerodynamic update scheduled to run for the first time in the final pre-season test at Jerez should deliver more speed.

"We will have a few new items in Barcelona next week but the main package will be introduced in Jerez the week after," he said. "And that should be a reasonable step before the start of the season.

"And now we are starting to understand the mechanical side of the car, we have some ideas on how we can improve that in the next few months. So I think the performance is okay. It is nothing special at the moment, but there is quite a lot of potential during the season."