http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=44550 Jenson confident of brighter future Wednesday, 05 November 2008 10:23 Jenson Button says he is convinced that there is 'light at the end of the tunnel' for Honda - and believes he is still capable of challenging for a world championship if the team improves. The British driver has been mired in the midfield for the past two years as his Honda team slumped, but with former Ferrari man Ross Brawn now at the helm and many months of work having already gone into Honda's 2009 car, Button insists he is ending 2008 in an optimistic frame of mind. "The difference is that I know there's light at the end of the tunnel," he told ITV Sport's Ted Kravitz. "It's not like the end of last year, when we were thinking 'wow, where do we go from here?' "The team as a whole has changed a lot, and I think that next year with the rule changes we should be further up the grid." As Lewis Hamilton became Britain's first world champion in 12 years, Button - once the nation's rising young hope - said he felt he could be in Lewis's position in a better car. "I should be challenging for world championships for sure," said Jenson. "But in F1, as we all know, it's a big team effort. "Every driver in F1, if he was in a good car he'd be challenging for wins. "Whether they'd be winning, that's a different question." Honda started this season in slightly better form than 2007, before falling back after deciding to write this season off and focus on a fully-fledged comeback in 2009. Button's sixth place in Spain therefore turned out to be his sole points finish of the year. "We decided that even if we improved this car, it was never going to be challenging for points," he said. "It is a better car to drive, but everyone's improved their cars. "Because the regulations have stayed the same for a while, everyone's very close in the midfield, and we were just at the back of that. "It is a better car to drive and it's a better car to work on, but it's still not a great car. "Because of the way the car is, when you put a lot fuel in it is a very difficult car to drive. "There's a lot of weight transfer and I think that hurts the car quite badly. "But when it comes down to the strategy, when you're that far back, the only thing you can do is to fill the car up. "Because when you're 17th or 18th on the grid, if you go for a two-stop, you've got to overtake people, and our straightline's speed not very good, so we're not going to be able to overtake people and make a two-stop strategy work." Go Button!!!
