New BAR Not a Winner, Says Button

Briton Jenson Button dampened his BAR Honda team's early season hopes in Malaysia today when he said their highly-promising new BAR 005 machine is not quick enough to win races this year.

The team, who finished eighth in the World Championship last year, appear to have made the biggest improvement of all the teams over the winter and were strong contenders in Australia two weeks ago.

But although Button is confident he will have a successful season he admitted: "The car's not good enough to win but it's still a very competitive car and I think we can show here how good it is."

Button could have finished in the points in Melbourne were it not for a messed up pit stop which saw his teammate Jacques Villeneuve come in on the same lap as him. He joined the team, his third in Formula One, after a disappointing spell with Renault following his debut season with Williams and he believes he has finally found his Grand Prix home.

"This is the most comfortable I think I've been in Formula One," he added. "It is probably the team that I've been most happy with. Everyone seems very positive and we're all working together very, very well.

"I think the biggest difference is when I came into the team, we got down to work very, very quickly whereas other teams, they were a little bit unsure, with me being young and quite inexperienced."