Richards Hails Weather Helicopter

BAR-Honda team principal David Richards believes that his helicopter weather crew hold the key to Jenson Button's British Grand Prix hopes.

A team of specially-employed weather spotters will monitor the likelihood of rain from the skies surrounding Silverstone in a bid to give Button an edge over his rivals.

The benefits of BAR's 'weather-copter' were demonstrated as Button out-witted the rest of the grid to qualify third for Sunday's race. BAR called their qualifying strategy perfectly after the helicopter crew informed the team that expected rain would not hit Silverstone.

Rival teams had opted to set slow times in pre-qualifying in order to run early in the grid-deciding session, but Button set the pace and consequently went out last in proper qualifying.

"Our helicopters said that rain will arrive at 14.35 but said it was 90 percent likely that it would pass to the north of the circuit," said Richards. "And they were exactly right - it missed the circuit by one mile.

"We knew the weather, we had a helicopter up there looking, and we knew it was going to pass to the north of the circuit. So we said we would do a normal qualification with the normal fuel and it paid off exactly as we expected."

Button will start behind the McLaren of pole-sitter Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, with World Champion Michael Schumacher alongside him on the second row. Richards is confident that BAR's helicopter and a strong race strategy can help Button challenge for his maiden Grand Prix victory in front of a 100,000 sell-out crowd.

"Of course it would be wonderful in front of his home crowd," Richards added of a Button win. "But in reality our target is to be on the podium and then if things go according to plan and we have a bit of luck who knows what could happen after that.

"I used the helicopter at Benetton and here at BAR before. Any edge you can get is important. It is going to be very similar to today (Saturday) with heavy rain showers in the afternoon. It could affect the race.

"The fact that this one missed us by one or two kilometres means maybe tomorrow it hits the circuit so we will wait and see."