Ahead of the 2005 season, newly appointed BAR-Honda boss, Nick Fry, said that should the team fail to score its first win, that year, the season could be considered a failure.

As the teams look ahead to 2006, technical director, Geoff Willis, admits that the first win must come next season.

"We've certainly started preparing for 2006 in exactly the right way with a quick car in testing and a very successful running of the new Honda V8 engine," he told his team's website.

"Next year's car certainly looks pretty good in terms of wind-tunnel numbers and we've still got another four or five weeks before it starts to run.

"Winning is clearly very important for us," he admitted, "we really must win races in 2006. We must learn not only to win but to win regularly.

"I think we're putting everything together in the right way," he continued, "we've got a very strong driver line-up, another big step on the car and engine as well as a very well integrated team both here in Brackley and in Tochigi over in Japan.

"It's not going to be easy and everyone is mindful of the challenge ahead but, at the same time, there is certainly an underlying current of confidence and a sense that 2006 will be a good year for us."