Not Winning Would be a 'Failure' for BAR

BAR and Jenson Button will consider themselves failures if they finish as runners-up again this year without winning a race.

The Honda-powered Formula One team unveiled their new Ferrari-chaser at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday saying they planned to be World Champions by 2007 but race winners immediately.

"We have to get a win this year, if we don't it's going to be very disappointing," said Briton Button after firing up the BAR 007 and driving a few demonstration laps.

"We've made a good step forward with the car, we've pushed it as close to the limit as we can with the new regulations so we'll be very disappointed as a team and I will be personally if we don't get a win this year."

Button finished second four times in 2004 on his way to third place in the championship. BAR, the revelations of the season, finished as runners-up to runaway champions Ferrari with 10 podiums.

It was BAR's best season, the team eclipsing former champions Williams and McLaren and finally shedding their reputation as big-spending under-achievers.

Nick Fry, who took over as principal after the departure of David Richards in November and Honda's decision to take a 45 percent stake in the team, said the strategy had now changed.

"In order to eventually win the World Championship we need to take the next step and that's to win a race," he declared.

"If we were second again in the Championship but with no wins, we would be incredibly disappointed.

"That would be failure. If we were to win a race and even potentially finish with a lower position that may well be regarded as success," added the Briton.

Big Improvement

BAR were the third team to take the wraps off their new car for the season starting in Australia on March 6.

They know Ferrari plan to complete the first four races with a developed version of last year's F2004 and feel BAR's best chance of victory could therefore be in the early races.

Button, whose future beyond 2005 remains uncertain after his intended move to Williams was blocked, has already said he believes a win in Melbourne could be possible.

"The whole team will be more under pressure this year, which is normal," said the 24-year-old, who partners Japan's Takuma Sato. "I'm sure some people don't expect us to do well, some expect us to finish behind McLaren and Williams.

"But I think we will be very strong and everyone involved over the winter thinks we will be challenging Ferrari."

The new car, taking in new aerodynamic regulations, is smaller than last year's and totally reworked under the skin with a completely revised engine. Fry said the steering wheel, the brake and throttle pedals were the only three things that remained the same from 2004.

"We're very confident there is a big improvement in the car and we're looking forward to showing it," said technical director Geoff Willis.

"It's very much better integrated...overall we think it's a lot more sophisticated package and we hope as big a step for 2005 from 2004 as we had for 2004."