London: Honda hope the tight and twisty streets of Monaco can help Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello compete on level terms at last with Formula One's frontrunners in next week's glamour race.
"I think we can look forward to a good race. It's a place that both drivers like a lot," team boss Nick Fry said after Honda took a double-points finish in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
"For Jenson obviously it's home and I think that's always promising. He's done very well there in the past and it's a circuit that suits him. Our top speed was fairly miserable (in Spain) and that's not such a big problem in Monte Carlo so it's 'Bring it on' -- we're looking forward to it," he added.
Button was sixth and Barrichello seventh, lapped by Renault's race winner and world champion Fernando Alonso, at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The Briton did not race in Monaco last year after the team, then BAR, were suspended for two races for weight and fuel irregularities.
In 2004, however, Button finished a close second to Renault's race winner Jarno Trulli.
The 26-year-old has also qualified consistently well this season -- on the first two rows in the first four races and on pole in Australia in April.
"Clearly we are capable of qualifying well," said Fry. "If we have a clear run through the qualifying, I'm sure Jenson can be way up there."
Button said he was looking forward to Monaco, the highlight of the grand prix calendar despite being the season's slowest race on a circuit where overtaking is extremely difficult.
"Monaco for me is the one race where I'm really looking forward to it...it's a circuit where I think you can make up small differences in the cars," he said.
"The only time I have raced there in the last three years was a good weekend," added the local resident.
"I love the circuit, have gone very well in the last few years. I think that it's a circuit where the car will work well. It's not a high aerodynamic circuit and mechanically we're very strong. The circuit hasn't changed since 2004 so it won't be an issue at all," he said of missing last year's race.
"And 2004 is the year we really want to remember as well from Monaco and we've got a lot of useful information from that."
Honda are fourth in the constructors' championship after six races, a hefty 54 points behind Renault.
Comments
0 comment