Button Confident BAR will Challenge Top Three

Briton Jenson Button is confident his BAR team will be able to challenge for the top three positions in the 2004 Formula One season.

"2004 looks set to be a very exciting season for us," said Button, whose team unveiled their new 006 car today at the Barcelona circuit.

"Pre-season testing has been going really well and the highlight so far was setting the new lap record in Barcelona two weeks ago. We didn't disguise the fact that we were running low fuel but the purpose of the run was to gauge car performance in that trim. As you can imagine, we were very pleased with the result.

"The car is a major step forward and I feel very confident that the team isn't overstating its expectations for this year when we say we can fight with the top three teams.

"I think Taku [Sato] and I will work very well together and hopefully we can look forward to the same kind of results we achieved in Japan. I think this year will definitely bring us podium finishes and, who knows, perhaps my first win as well."

24-year old Button will start his second season with the BAR team, having joined them at the start of last year after two seasons at Benetton/Renault. The Briton finished last year's Championship in ninth position, having scored 17 points.

Button will have Japanese Takuma Sato as his teammate.