Button tired of 'first win' talk

The Honda Racing driver was on the receiving end of some light-hearted jokes at the Autosport Awards on Sunday, where he was compared with Tim Henman as the only British sports star still without a major success under his belt.

And although he has taken the jibes in good spirit, he has expressed some frustration at the focus on his record because it is out of proportion with what he thinks himself.

"It bothers other people more than it does me at the moment," said Button. "Obviously everyone wants to be winning races. That's the way it is, but you need to have the equipment to do that.

"And if you look back at the cars I've been in, I've been in some good cars but nothing that's been really outstanding.

"All of my teammates have been very competitive and most of them have won races and I  think the only person that hasn't won races has been Taku (Sato). And in the same car as me, none of them won any races.

"A lot of it is to do with the equipment in Formula One and one small mistake by a team or one area that you are not strong enough in and you are not going to win races, unless you are really lucky."

Button had high hopes of bringing home his maiden victory in 2005. But a disastrous start to the campaign amid the controversy of the team's two-race ban for running underweight, and a lack of speed from the BAR007 over race distances, left him unable to achieve that target.

However, with Honda's full buy-out of BAR now complete and the Japanese car manufacturer more determined than ever, Button is hopeful for his chances next season.

"I've got my head down concentrating on next year working non-stop to hopefully make that first win happen," he added. "Nothing is certain. But I'm going to give it everything I possibly can. There is no use going into it anymore.

"It has been talked about so much and you can talk about what you like but it doesn't change the fact I haven't won a race.

"I'm going to go through my racing career and hopefully win many, many races and hopefully the World Championship and it will all be forgotten, but you know it's the winter. I know there's not much to talk about motor racing wise, but can you not talk about it too much? I'm bored of it now..."

And with World Champion Fernando Alonso having said last week that he believes Honda could be a dark horse for the World Championship next year, Button is aware of his team's potential.

"Alonso is not silly," he explained. "He knows Honda is a big manufacturer and I think he knows how determined they are to achieve success in Formula One - and they will.

"Toyota are going to be very strong in the future as well, and they won't give up until they are winning. I just hope that there aren't too many rule changes that are going to hold the manufacturers back and hopefully they are going to let us make the quickest Formula One cars we can and not hold us back."