Honda play down 2006 title chances

Although Jenson Button is full of confidence about the team's prospects for the new season, after an encouraging test in Barcelona last week, Honda Racing Development's vice-president Otmar Szafnauer believes a title is more realistic for 2007.

He claims that a major leap forward in the team's competitiveness will only come after a new wind-tunnel at Brackley is up and running in the middle of the year.

"Our aim is to start winning races in 2006 and a championship in 2007 - that's our goal," Szafnauer told Honda Racing's official website.

"The new wind-tunnel comes on stream during next season which should help us with development during the latter stages of 2006 as well as with the design of the 2007 car. Our objectives are somewhat based around those timings."

Honda Racing have opted to run a hybrid car this winter prior to the launch of their 2006 car in January. Szafnauer believes their approach is much better than rival Toyota's decision to run their new car straight away.

"We believe the Concept car gives us the best of both worlds: it lets us test the engine early so we can fix any issues before we go racing and this approach also allows the aero department to bring the new car out as late as possible," he said.

"There's no sense in the engine and gearbox, which are the two most technically complex parts of the package, waiting for the rest of the car to be ready and the designers need as much time as possible to find the best solutions. The hybrid car lets us achieve both these objectives."

Honda have also ruled out relocating their operating facility from Bracknell to the team's F1 factory at Brackley.

Szafnauer said: "We've investigated that option but, at this time, there are no plans to transfer HRD to Brackley.

"It will stay in Bracknell, which after all is not that far away. Besides, when we start supplying engines to more than one team in the future, it could make more sense for HRD to remain separated from the Honda Racing F1 Team factory at Brackley. In the short term at least, we have no plans of relocating HRD."