Jenson Button: The champagne's still on ice

After all the talk about Jenson giving British sport a summer boost the poor lad was under enormous pressure at Silverstone, but to his credit he seemed to thrive on it. Not so long ago you wouldn't have seen too many BAR caps in the grandstands, but Jenson's surge to the front has changed all that. And Button is more than able to cope with the attention.

It was always going to be hard to topple Ferrari, but at least Saturday briefly gave the punters some hope. As nearly everyone else mucked around and tried to go as slowly as possible Jenson topped the first session in style, and at least that meant he had the prime spot for qualifying proper. He didn't make the front row but he did beat Michael Schumacher, who as it turned out had a little more fuel on board.

Things didn't quite come together in the race, and in the end Jenson had to settle for fourth. A year ago that would have been a miraculous result for BAR, but expectations are so much higher now. Imola was great and there have been some fine performances, but it's easy to overlook the fact that some of Jenson's podiums have been assisted by retirements ahead. At Silverstone nobody stopped.

Considering that team mate Takuma Sato was left miles behind, and that he'd also got the better of Williams, Renault and one of the McLarens, it was not a bad result. But afterwards Jenson could not hide his disappointment, and indication if one were still needed of his level of commitment this year.

"It's disappointing for me, but also for the fans and the team," he rued. "I drove my heart out - I couldn't do anything else. That was it. It's not like I'm going to take it easy in front of my home crowd at my home Grand Prix. I gave the maximum I could, and I think it showed where Takuma ended up.

"We were just struggling with very low grip. It's not a balance issue, it's a car issue we've got to sort out sooner rather than later. Otherwise for the next few races we're going to be losing a lot of points to McLaren.

"Through Becketts you have to have a very good car. The car is not bad, it just seems we've got less grip than other people, front and rear. When we go to Hockenheim the car should work a little bit better than it does here. It's less of an aero circuit and more of a traction circuit, and the car is good in that area. We've got to look at the reasons why on aero circuits we're not quite there, and we've probably dropped back a bit compared to Ferrari and McLaren.

"I didn't actually think we were going to win here. I thought a podium would be possible."

McLaren's revival, considering the effort that's gone into the new car, cannot be a big surprise. Certainly not to Button himself.

"I knew after Magny-Cours that they were going to be quick here. It was the first race with the new car, and they did a very good job. Coming here, we thought they'd be quick. I don't know if they were on a different tyre than us in the race, but they were very consistent. We seemed to drop off throughout the race as there was more rubber laid on the circuit."

A few weeks ago David Richards admitted that he knew the competition wasn't going to get any easier, and the team had to make hay while it could. So has BAR peaked, as far as this season goes?

"I don't know if we have, or if other people have improved. I can't see that we've taken a step backwards, it's more other people improving their cars throughout the year. It's a lot more competitive now. We've got to make that step forward and look at the reasons why we haven't been able to. I'm sure we'll have a good talk after this and come to some conclusion."

At least the main rivals in the points battle for Jenson and the team - Jarno Trulli and Renault - didn't fare too well.

"Fourth's not a bad result. Obviously Jarno didn't have a very good race, he had a big accident. And Alonso didn't score. We got five points on Renault in the championship, which is great. If we come second in the championship we'll be very happy, but we'll rather do it by scoring podiums and fighting the Ferraris and McLarens."

Like everyone else, BAR has new bits and pieces in the pipeline. Whether they will be good enough to put the team back on terms with McLaren, let alone provide the edge to beat Ferrari, remains to be seen. But Jenson thinks that there is still progress to be made.

"We're capable of it, I think. We're very determined to be World Champions in the future, and to do that we need to keep fighting throughout the year. We can make the improvements, but we're looking at the reasons why we're not as close to Ferrari as we thought we were."

Eleven years ago Damon Hill missed his dream debut victory at Silverstone, and had it all come right in Hockenheim. Will history repeat itself?