HONDA GLOOM

Button, ecstatic last August to have secured his breakthrough win at last, had high hopes before Honda's new car hit the track but they have been thoroughly dampened by the testing times.

"It may well be a case that we look back at Jenson's career and say it was screwed up at the beginning because of being wrongly advised or with the wrong team," said Hill.

Honda's senior technical director Shuhei Nakamoto was quoted by the Autosport Web site (www.autosport.com) this week as saying they were already planning a big upgrade for the second round of the season in Malaysia.

"At the moment we are ahead of Red Bull and Toyota but behind the rest," he said. "It will be a massive struggle to get into Q3 (the third session of qualifying)."

If Honda appear to be struggling, then so too do Coulthard's Red Bull with championship-winning designer Adrian Newey's first car for the team failing to produce instant magic.

Davidson's Super Aguri failed to score a point last season and their new car, although yet to be unveiled, is already contentious with rivals muttering about it resembling too closely the Honda that Button drove to victory in Hungary.

"We know we won't have the fastest car out there but it should be a bit of an improvement," Davidson told reporters in London last week.

"Hopefully we'll be in a position where we might be able to score a point or two. That would be fantastic for everybody and that's really got to be the ultimate goal."

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