Manama: Jenson Button's smiling face appears on advertising hoardings across Manama, endorsing luxury seaside resort homes in Bahrain with the tagline 'Live Life in the Fast Lane'.
But the Briton, through no fault of his own, has seen nothing to raise his spirits on the track this season.
His Honda team are limping along in Formula One's slow lane while 22-year-old rookie compatriot Lewis Hamilton grabs the headlines at McLaren with podium finishes from his first two races.
Button was beaten in the Australian season-opener by Japan's Takuma Sato, whose Super Aguri team have yet to score a point in 20 races and are now using what is essentially an updated version of last year's Honda.
In Malaysia last weekend, the Briton finished 12th, one place behind Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello.
It is all a far cry from 2006, when Button started on the front row in Malaysia and finished third.
In Hungary in August he secured his first victory, a breakthrough after 113 starts, and scored more points than any other driver in the last six races.
He has been lapped in both races this year and Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, the third round of the championship, offers little more than the prospect of another pointless slog in the desert heat.
No chance
"The car's not that fast, but we all know that now," Button said at the Sakhir circuit.
"It's not going to change in the next couple of races.
"With this car at the moment, I would say there is no chance of getting wins or podiums. There needs to be a serious change."
The car's aerodynamics pose the fundamental problem, with the drivers reporting the car to be very unstable and inconsistent under braking. Neither have any confidence in its handling.
"Even though the drivers are experienced and brave guys, it means that when the car wiggles about under braking they tend to brake earlier and as soon as you brake early in a Formula One car you lose tons of time," said team boss Nick Fry at Sepang last weekend.
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"We're not fighting fires all over the place but clearly we have a big issue which we need to overcome."
There are other problems as well, with the team suffering also from the switch from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres following the French manufacturers' withdrawal at the end of last year.
The difference between Honda and the leading teams is as much as two seconds a lap, a gulf in Formula One terms.
Fry suggested Honda, eager to build on last year's promise after finishing fourth overall and as one of only three teams to win a race, had simply pushed the envelope a bit too far in development.
"I suspect we probably tried a little bit too hard. We obviously are aiming for consistent victories and we know that to do that it is not small steps that are required, it is quite big steps," he said.
"Although we were competitive at the end of last year we were still some way off the top slot on a consistent basis."
Button, who had started the year fired up and hoping to mount a credible championship challenge at long last, agreed that Honda had taken risks with the new car.
"We needed to take a few risks, we just went the wrong way but you can't sit back and do the same every year - you need to try something different because we've been the second best team in a season before. To make that step to the best team I think you need to take a few more risks and the risk that we took didn't pay off for us this year so far. But we've got lots of new parts coming later in the year."
Hamilton success
The problem for Button is that, from being the top Briton in Formula One last year, with sixth place overall, he has been eclipsed by Hamilton.
Hamilton, not Button, is now seen as the man most likely to become Britain's ninth world champion and first since Damon Hill in 1996.
The youngster, Formula One's first black driver, could this weekend become the first to finish his first three races on the podium after a truly sensational debut.
The British media, who gave Button the front page treatment after Hungary, have found little space so far this season for the 27-year-old and even less for anything positive about his prospects.
"He's the new boy in Formula One and he's doing a really good job," said Button of Hamilton.
"I'd rather be up there and challenging for wins and be in the newspapers for those reasons, for winning," he added. "I'd much rather be in a different position."
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