Button Encouraged ahead of Imola

After the disappointments of the first three races, where Button and teammate Takuma Sato have so far failed to see the chequered flag, the team have been working flat out since Bahrain to resolve their speed and reliability issues.

And after record breaking testing times at Barcelona and Paul Ricard, Button has told Autosport-Atlas that he believes that BAR's season will now truly kick-off at Imola.

"It all looks promising to me now," he said after this week's test in France. "It has taken some time to get where we are - but this is where we should have been at the beginning of the season.

"I don't need reminding about what happened (at the start of the year) - we really just got bogged down. But the runs I have done here are very consistent and there are some interesting tyres for Imola."

Button took his maiden Formula One pole position at last year's San Marino Grand Prix - with the hard braking and acceleration characteristics of the track playing to the strengths of last year's BAR 006.

And although this year's car has shown flashes of speed, the new wing package, diffuser and sidepod arrangements due to be introduced should help the team deliver even more.

"The package seems to be working - and it was already getting better in the last test (at Barcelona)," added Button. "But finally we have the full package.

"We did have a problem with the engine here, but I think we will be up there in Imola. And yes, we have to see the chequered flag really."

Although Button's best lap from the Paul Ricard test failed to match the record performance of Sato's, he was quick to point out that his Japanese teammate's performance had been helped by cutting the chicane.

"Taku is notorious for that," smiled Button. "My lap was a proper time and I lost about 0.3 seconds as a result."

That missing three tenths would have been enough to put Button at the time of the timesheets from the week's test.