By Phil Huff
March 13 2008

Honda Racing F1 are preparing to take their first laps of the 2008 Formula One world Championship, so it was time for a couple of questions to be put to team principal Ross Brawn and the driver, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, and find out what the expectations are for this race and beyond.

"I'm looking forward to it!" exclaims Ross Brawn when asked his feelings as he commences his first season with the team. "We have a very talented group of people in the team, whose collective expertise is good enough to succeed in Formula One and I have every faith that we will," he continues. "For now though we must continue to take it one step at a time and our first goal is to improve the RA108 at every race."

The team have been improving the RA108 since its first run in January, a couple of weeks before the official launch. "We've made steady progress with the RA108 since its launch at the end of January," explains Brawn. "Practically all of the aerodynamic and mechanical parts have been updated and when we ran our Melbourne-spec package for the first time last week, we saw some positive changes to the performance of the car. We now have to see what that improvement equates to on the race track and relative to the competition."

The final test in Jerez, where we understand the team were running laps in the 1m18s area, saw a number of changes to the car, many of which will appear tomorrow morning in Melbourne. Encouragingly, it's understood that wind tunnel data and track gathered data now matches, even if the numbers aren't quite where they would like them to be.

At least the driveability issues of the RA107 have been resolved. "It's a very driveable car, which gives us a good basis to build on," says Jenson Button. "It still lacks a bit of speed, but we've made improvements at every test in many areas and I'm confident that this level of development can continue throughout the year."

While Jenson remains firmly grounded with regard to his expectations, Rubens Barrichello remains a little more guarded. "The mid-field is going to be very close this year, so we could see an interesting battle," says the Brazilian. "It's almost impossible to say where we'll end up in Melbourne because the lap times will be close. So it's a case of wait and see."

One thing all the teams will have to contend with is the removal of traction control, but Rubens is looking forward to that.

"I feel like a boy with a new toy!" he exclaims. "Having driven without TC for many years in the '90s, it didn't take me long to adjust," he continues. "It will throw up new challenges, particularly when it's wet, but they are challenges that I'm looking forward to."

We're looking forward to them, too.