The Briton, speaking exclusively live via satellite to visitors of the Autosport International show, declared himself delighted with his first impressions of the car and upbeat about the team's hopes for the year ahead.

"There are no excuses now," said Button. "We're out to win races. We're looking for our first win and we will see what happens from there. Do I believe I can be a winner this year? That's my aim and that's the team aim - yes. We're not here to finish second this year."

Team boss Nick Fry, who took over from David Richards at the end of last year, is equally confident about the team's prospects.

"The win will come this year," he claimed. "Last year was fantastic but at the end of the day winning is everything and the objective for 2005 is to win. We're in really good shape now. BAT has had a long-standing commitment and now we have Honda, the largest engine manufacturer in the world, with us."

Visually at least, the BAR007 is a major step forward from its predecessor, featuring a radically different front wing and a more sculpted and compact rear end.

Takuma Sato, who gave the car its first shakedown test at Silverstone late last week, said: "It's absolutely exciting everybody, to be honest. It looks great and all the numbers we've got look fantastic. I think this is the car that we wanted.

"Obviously with this year's car we needed stability and consistency since we have to use one set of tyres, plus we've lost a huge amount of downforce. From now until Melbourne we need to discover how to get that back.

"The team is motivated now and I can't wait until Melbourne. We're all working for the ultimate goal and we need to step up together and I'm sure we can do it."

Despite the intense optimism, however, Button has drawn short of making any definite predictions about his world championship chances - especially because Ferrari still appears clear favourite.

"Whipping Michael? I'm not sure if he likes whipping. But we're going to make them worry and push them very hard."