Button backs Honda staff reshuffle

The appointment this week of Shuhei Nakamoto as senior technical director, and the subsequent departure of Geoff Willis, has left question marks about the future design direction of the Japanese car manufacturer.

Willis led the design of the 2006 car and would have already started work on the 2007 challenger prior to him going on gardening leave this week.

But Button believes the current issues facing the team will be overcome and the promotion of Nakamoto will eventually pay off in improving Honda Racing.

"He (Geoff) is still having discussions with the team about where we go from here, and we will have to wait and see," said Button. "You do need continuity for sure in certain areas, but sometimes you do need things to change a little bit to make it that little bit exciting.

"Everyone is working very hard and the changes, hopefully, will be for the better."

Button believes that Nakamoto will make life hard for the team's personnel, in pushing for improvements, although admits it will take time for the Japanese to settle into his role.

"He is a great guy and he is very pushy, which is what you need within a team," said Button. "He will always push very hard, maybe when other people won't. He is always very focused and he is always hammering us, everyone in the team, making sure we are getting the best out of what we have.

"He is not going to fit into the role straight away, he is going to have a busy few weeks, but he is back at home now working very hard I should think. It is definitely a challenge for him. I am sure he is very excited about it."

When asked how quickly he expected a turnaround in the team's form, Button said: "I haven't got a clue. We thought we would be winning races now, but you never know in F1. It is so competitive and we really don't know.

"The only thing I know is that race by race we will have new packages going on to the car, which we haven't had so far this year. It is going to hopefully be a steady flow of aero parts - that is an area we need to work on.

"There are other areas we are not strong in, but it is going to make a difference."