With every race that passes without victory, the pressure on Jenson Button becomes ever-greater.

The British media, in particular, wants British winners, if only to subsequently set about destroying them. Button has it all, good looks, money, danger and glamour, but as yet he is not a winner.

Talking to Kevin Eason of The Times, the Englishman talked about the pressure, and dismissed the critics.

"I don't lie awake at night, sweating and thinking I will never win. I will," he insists. "You have to be positive.

"Even doing 135 laps in testing, I make sure that each time I go out I am trying to do absolutely the best I can," he continues. "I give everything. I am not just driving the car saying, 'All right, we haven't won yet so it doesn't matter.' It will happen if I work hard and the team works hard."

However, ignoring the shortcomings of the Honda RA106, Button is aware that he is up against ten proven winners, and at least half-a-dozen potential winners, each weekend.

"The biggest frustration is that Formula One is so competitive now and most of the drivers are so good," he admits. "It is very different to 30 years ago, and I am not putting anybody down from that time. But now everyone is working their backsides off and they live Formula One every day. And that's what you have to do, even just to stay in Formula One. After that, it's down to the car. Even Michael says we are similar in talent with little differences and a lot of it is down to the team."

Following last weekend's misery at Imola the Englishman paid a visit to the team's Brackley HQ, to give his co-workers, his teammates, a rallying call.

"At the factory, I ran through the positives and negatives and there were plenty of positives," he says. "I think everyone in the factory turned up. I was amazed. I said my bit about how we can improve things and they are working so hard you have to thank them.

"I know it's not good enough to say we can win but never achieve it, but it is a fact that we can. Every team on the grid makes mistakes and Renault has made many in the past - I know because I was there once. It's a question of realising you are making mistakes and then doing something about it. You have to be perfect to win a grand prix and we haven't been there yet.

"It would be difficult to keep going if we had a slow car - but we haven't."