By Phil Huff
August 8 2006

Former team boss David Richards has congratulated Jenson Button and the Honda Racing F1 team on their first win, but cautions that the success has changed nothing. "I am very, very pleased for Jenson and I think it is a great thing for the sport in Britain which will help maintain a high level of interest," said David Richards, the BAR Honda boss between 2001 and the end of 2004. "It was long overdue but he got the job done."

However, Richards isn't convinced that the win represented a turn around in performance for the Honda Racing F1 team, explaining that "you've got to look at the conditions in which Jenson achieved the result. He took advantage of a set of circumstances which were presented to him and he did the job but it doesn't materially change Honda's position."

In that, he shares his opinion with Damon Hill, the 1996 F1 world champion. "It's my feeling that when it comes to the next race at Istanbul it will be back to situation normal," said Hill, "with the team reverting to its role as a championship pretender rather than an established front runner."