Honda will not write season off

That is the claim of head of race engineering Jacky Eeckelaert, who thinks it is vital that the Japanese manufacturer do all they can to make improvements with their current contender.

The team are investing a great deal of effort in producing aerodynamic updates to the RA107 and a 'new' car for the Canadian Grand Prix, even though there have been some suggestions that that could divert attention from preparing their 2008 chassis.

However, Eeckelaert is adamant that the team must keep pushing with their RA107.

"In a works team, you can't write off the season - you're not allowed to do that," he said. "If you wrote it off and started on the new car, you still need to know how to make it better.

"Honestly, we have to perform this season - and to get there we have a plan and know what to do. You cannot just drop this year and concentrate on next season, that's no good.

"You can do that at the end of the season - like McLaren last year, who were third in the championship four races from the end and knew they couldn't catch the top two.

"We were behind them but they felt we were not close enough to pass them. Then you can concentrate more resources on next year's car. But this early in the season? No - you have to work hard to get performance from the car."

The Japanese squad, who scored a win last season on their way to fourth place in the championship, are yet to score a point in 2007 after the first two races.

At last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello finished in 11th position, one place ahead of teammate Jenson Button.