Richards: Button must deliver

"You never say this is the make or break, but there were a lot of hollow promises last year. You can't go on promising and under-delivering, can you?," David Richards told Reuters at the Autosport International show.

BAR, now the Honda Formula One team, were overall runners-up to Ferrari in the 2004 Constructors' Championship but Richards left before their nightmare 2005 season.

They finished sixth after being banned for two races for breaking the fuel and weight rules.

"This is a very, very critical year now," said Richards of the team's prospects.

"After last year, it becomes very important that the team performs not just well but right at the front, on the podium every weekend and getting those wins that they have been anticipating for some time.

"Jenson has been there a long time now. His performance against Rubens (Barrichello) will be very carefully assessed."

Brazilian Barrichello, a race winner with Ferrari as Michael Schumacher's teammate, has joined from the former champions.

"I think they (Button and Barrichello) are very comparable," said Richards.

"They are a very good benchmark for each other. Rubens brings an extraordinary amount of experience of a superbly-run team to Honda, and he's a nice guy as well. I expect they will work very well together and there won't be much to draw between them either."

Schumacher Champion

Richards signed Button in 2002 and fought a legal battle against Williams in 2004 to keep him for last season.

Button then bought himself out of a contract that would have taken him to Williams this year and signed instead a deal to stay at Honda.

Richards questioned the team's wisdom in agreeing such a long-term contract and said he would not have done it.

"In a very young driver you do that, in a driver who has an extraordinary proven record you do that, but in someone in the middle it's a very brave move which could pay off and may not," he said.

"I certainly think Jenson is a great asset to the team, but whether I'd have gone for the real long-term proposal that I understand is the situation, then no."

Barrichello has taken the place of Japan's Takuma Sato, whose hopes of returning this season depend on the new Super Aguri team being accepted in the Championship.

"I'm just a bit sad for Sato because there's no denying that there is an extraordinary talent there," said Richards. "But it's just never harnessed properly."

While the former team boss made clear that he thought former champion Jacques Villeneuve, driving for BMW-Sauber this year, was past his sell-by date, he expected 37-year-old Schumacher to be as strong as ever.

"Michael is an extraordinary talent. Michael to my mind will probably be World Champion this year," he said of the seven-times champion.

"You don't have to be any great visionary to think it's (Renault's Fernando) Alonso, (McLaren's Kimi) Raikkonen or Schumacher."