Jenson Button has admitted that Honda’s new car for 2007 is not a world beater.
“We’re not on the pace of the top teams, which is disappointing,” the Englishman, who last year notched up his first grand prix win in Hungary, told the Daily Mail.
Brackley based Honda launched the ‘RA107’ amid renewed promises of a title challenge, but so far it has not featured regularly near the top of the winter times.
Button, 27, was third quickest at Bahrain on Thursday but later spent time at the side of the circuit with a broken throttle.
He said: “The positive thing is that there’s a lot more (car development) coming in Bahrain.”
Conservative estimates suggest that he and teammate Rubens Barrichello are at least a second off the pace.
Honda’s engineering director Jacky Eeckelaert told the Mirror: “We’re not as quick as McLaren, Ferrari or BMW but we think we’re ahead of Renault.”
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DailyF1News.com
