“You always need a bit of luck to get the first podium – but if we carry on working like we have been doing I think we could do it in first race,” said Button, who has finished fourth four times so far.

“That would be fantastic, but if it doesn’t happen so be it. There will be still be a long way to go this season.”

Button has been handed the role and responsibility of team leader in his second season at BAR after seeing off former world champion Jacques Villenueve.

It was the Frome-born driver who unveiled the BAR-Honda 006 by guiding it out of the garage at the Circuit de Catalunya today before completing a handful of demonstration laps.

“I’m still not sure about the car, because I’ve only done a few laps in it. But it’s very stable, which is the most important thing,” added Button.

Team chief David Richards is confident Button and team-mate Takuma Sato, who competed in the final race of last season after Villeneuve quit, are the duo to continue the Brackley-based outfit’s progress up the grid.

“It is one of the youngest driver line-ups but they are ambitious, and I am sure their exuberance is going to move us forward,” said Richards, whose team finished fifth in the manufacturers’ standings last year.

“The target for 2004 is to seriously challenge the top three teams and regularly finish on the podium. We will make no bones about it – that’s the target.

“If you think of it as building a block of flats. The foundations have to be put in place first. We’ve done that; now it’s time for us to come above the ground this year and show our true potential.”