Former world champion Nigel Mansell believes Jenson Button is on the verge of breaking his duck and will go on to become Britain's next world champion. The 26-year-old racer has yet to win a Grand Prix in 106 starts and has endured a miserable 2006 season.
But Mansell told BBC Sport: "I've no doubt Jenson will get the monkey off his back this year. "By the end of the year he'll have won at least one race and hopefully a number of them."
Button's Honda team have struggled this season.
The Briton, who had been plagued by tyre problems throughout the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month, exited the race in the dying metres when his engine blew.
And at Imola last weekend he had to settle for seventh place after a pit-stop blunder ended his hopes of finishing on the podium.
"Getting pole this year in Australia was fabulous and obviously the car is quick," said Mansell. "But Honda's reliability has come into question and the set-up of the car is suspect in certain times of the race."
Cheesman
McLaren downplay Ferrari victory
McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh says his team will be the main rivals to Renault in 2006 despite Ferrari's win in the San Marino race.
McLaren's Juan Montoya was third behind Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso's Renault on Sunday.
But Whitmarsh said: "I believe we'll beat Ferrari over the course of the year, even at current levels.
"We need to lift our performance level to beat Renault. We have to accept that Renault is the benchmark."
Renault boss Flavio Briatore agreed with McLaren, suggesting that the Ferrari resurgence would not lead to a concerted push for the title.
"For us this result is very good," he said. "We knew this circuit was not best for us and we still finished second. Better than that, we took more points from [Kimi] Raikkonen
"I believe our contender for the championship is Raikkonen and not Schumacher - which is great."
After four races defending champion Alonso leads the standings with 36 points, with Schumacher on 21, Raikkonen on 18 and Montoya on 15.
Alonso and Renault won the drivers' title and constructors' championship respectively last year, ending Ferrari's recent domination.
McLaren team chief Ron Dennis, meanwhile, blamed Kimi Raikkonen's poor performance for the team's failure to finish in the top two on Sunday.
Raikkonen qualified eighth, one place behind Montoya, and ended the race in fifth position
Dennis said: "Kimi should have been three or four tenths quicker in qualifying and was capable of it.
"It would have put him on the second row of the grid and I think it would have been a very different race.
"We should have qualified harder and we could have raced harder."
Yeheti
FIA Announce 12th Team
The FIA this morning announced that David Richards' Prodrive was accepted as the latest Formula 1 entry as of 2008. Prodrive was chosen as it has the best combination of financial backing and motor sport experience.
"Prodrive has the best combination of financial backing, technical capability and motor sport experience and is well known to the FIA through its participation in the World Rally Championship," explained FIA President Max Mosley. "Also, Prodrive's chief executive, David Richards, has experience as a Formula One team principal."
The FIA received 11 applications of new teams that were interested to enter F1 in 2008.
It is indeed a sad day as paul stoddart missed out on his application although he says he will get back into the paddock at some stage. max mosely has said that maybe more then 12 teams could be entered one day although the tracks would have to upgarde to accomidate the teams in the pits and the paddock space. i hold out hope stoddy will be back one day...[/b][/u]
Cheesman
Who tests where this week?
With the first round of the European campaign under their belts, the teams now return their attentions to testing in preparation for the next round of the season - the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring on May 7.
Silverstone holds the week’s major session, a three-day affair starting on Tuesday. Due in attendance are the likes of McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Honda, Williams, Midland, Red Bull and Toro Rosso. With the flyaway races complete, expect to see plenty of race drivers back in the cockpit, as well as their testing colleagues.
Toyota are heading to the potentially warmer climes of the south of France and the Paul Ricard circuit, where the Japanese team will have all four of their regular drivers in action over a three-day session starting on Wednesday. Expected to join them are Ferrari, who are also set to test at their own Fiorano circuit in Italy.
