By Phil Huff
June 9 2006

Jenson Button faced the press yesterday, sitting in on the pre-race press conference. As is the norm now, he was hounded about how many races he's gone without a win, but was alarmingly honest about his prospects with Honda this season. Here's what he had to say... Jenson, you seem to be very much aiming for third or fourth team here. Is that the position of the team at the moment?

We're not going to suddenly jump forward compared to Monaco and the previous few races. Renault and Ferrari are very strong at the moment and I think McLaren are also, so it's very difficult. It's so competitive out there at the moment. But for us to say where we are going to finish is a silly thing to do. I think we need to just try to get the best out of the package we have and that is our aim at the moment, and then we will see where we end up. We don't know where we will be.

Can you envisage fighting with Renault and Ferrari?

No, not this weekend.

But in the future?

Yeah, definitely. I think every team would hope that they can challenge Renault and Ferrari in the future, and that's the reason why we are here, to hopefully be the best, but it's not going to happen overnight. We are improving things, the new full-size wind tunnel coming on line, it's going to make a big difference to us, so for the future, I'm very positive that we will be challenging at the front. But this weekend is really a weekend that we are all looking forward to, it's a very special weekend, especially for us two [indicates Coulthard], it's our home Grand Prix and we're hoping for a good result and that good result is us getting the best out of the package we have at the moment and then, on Monday, we talk about where we go from there.

Just tell us about racing here at Silverstone, for you, your home Grand Prix?

It is a great feeling, especially when the weather's like this. The Australian weather was pretty poor when we were there… But this is great to see: the sun's out and it's going to stay out for the whole weekend which is great and it's going to be pretty special for the fans, I think, especially the English fans, having the footy on Saturday and being able to watch it on the big screens.

Your feelings about the World Cup, who’s going to win, who will you be supporting?

It's quite an obvious one: England, I think, have got a fantastic team. Hopefully they can work well together and yeah, I think this could be a very good year for English football.

Do you know where you are going to watch the opening match?

My debrief room, after qualifying, I think.

I have a newspaper article here in which David is quoted as saying that basically Jenson should be ruthless. If he believes Honda can win he should stay, if not, he should get out of there now. Could I ask for your comments on that?

Yeah. That's always going to be the way. If things are going good, you want to be there. If not, you don't. It's a difficult one. I think it's a good quote as well. But it's not all down to just the one race, and maybe not even one season. Looking back from experience, you cannot keep just chopping and changing teams season to season because things do change and I think you need to understand where the team is and where they are weak and where they are moving forward and at what stage they are. For me, where I am at the moment is the best thing for me for the future. The way things are happening with the wind tunnel, and many other things within the team, I'm very positive that this is the correct place for me.

How frustrating is it for you to start every season as a professional driver who has not yet been able to win a race. Is that something you keep in your mind?

Yes, of course its frustrating because as racing drivers we're all here to do one job and that's to win and it is frustrating, especially this year, because this was the year when we came into the season with everything very good. The winter testing was very positive, the car was very reliable and we were setting some very good lap times – not just over one lap but over long runs as well – we showed a lot of consistency throughout the run. The first couple of races were pretty much where we thought we were – things were going pretty well and in Bahrain we were very fast but we made a mistake, sorry, we had a problem with the clutch and the second race we finished on the podium. We weren't quite on the pace of the Renaults but it was pretty good – we were quite a long way ahead of the rest of the field, so it was, those two races were very good and then it started to go downhill after Australia, or during it and I think the reason is Renault and Ferrari especially have made really big improvements in every race – they just seem to have had new bits on the car and they've really stepped up their game. With us, we have made improvements but nowhere near as much and that's an area we really do need to work on as a team, because we can produce very good cars at the start of the year; it's staying competitive for the whole season that's where were losing out a little bit.

Continuing that, you've had 108 Grands Prix. How big is the pressure? I know you're waiting desperately for your first win out there. How do you cope with that and what keeps you thinking you can be a candidate for world titles?

Numbers mean nothing if you haven't got a car that can win races. What does a number mean? Nothing at all. It might happen this race – it's very unlikely given the speed of the Renaults, it might happen in four races time, it might not happen until next year or even the year after. Nothing changes, you still give 100% and you give everything you can to achieve your goal, but like I said, it is a team effort and it's not just down to one individual.

The weight of expectation's probably far greater when you drive here, but given that the nation's eyes are on the World Cup, is that less pressure this weekend?

It's great to be here – it's gonna be a fantastic atmosphere this weekend for a British driver, but for any driver on the grid. It doesn't make me feel like I'm under more pressure at all because I know exactly how quick the car can go and I will do everything I can to get the best performance out of it, and I can't do any more than that so there is no outside pressure because that's it and I can achieve that.

The World Cup is starting tomorrow so do you think it will affect the interest of British spectators on Sunday? Will the Grandstands be full of people to support you and DC?

It depends how well we do on Saturday in the World Cup I suppose, we'll see if they're still capable of coming along tomorrow, sorry, on Sunday. For me, we should have a full house because apart from being in Germany and watching it there, here is the absolute best place to be watching it, definitely. We'll have a massive crowd with the big screens and we should have a great atmosphere. Sunday, we're not playing in the World Cup so it should be busy, especially if the weather's like this.

Are Honda capable of winning before the end of the year and do you think you have a chance of podiums?

That's a difficult one – we don't know that yet. We don't know when we're getting a new aerodynamic package, whether it's gonna be exactly what we need and whether it's gonna be good enough to challenge the top teams or not. All I know is that we're working very hard on improving the car in many areas and we'll see. I hope we have a chance of getting more podiums this season and obviously I hope we can win a race, but that doesn't make the car go quicker.

Can you take us through the first series of corners based on the tests you've done. Am I right in thinking you don't really use the brakes until the other side of Stowe?

We were dabbing brakes off the maggots chicane – the left-hander there we were tapping the brakes, but even Stowe you're not tapping the brakes so hard because you'd scrub off too much speed. The first place you really hit the brakes is into Club.