By Phil Huff
March 13 2007

Rubens Barrichello has stated that the Honda RA107 is a long way off winning, despite reassurances from team boss Nick Fry that the car is capable of taking victory. With pre-season testing seeing Honda struggling to reach the top of the time sheets, the this weekends Australian Grand Prix could be a depressing event for the Brackley squad, with even Nick Fry admitting that a win is out of the question. However, while Fry believes the team can turn it around for the second half of the season, Rubens isn't so sure.

"The first race will be what it will be," Barrichello told Autosport.com. "Obviously, we know where the problem is - but it's really difficult to address it. There has been some things happening in the tunnel back at the factory with the team really working to make it happen.

"The times that we can set with the problems we have, if we fix those problems we're going to go forwards by a big margin," he continued. "So it depends - it's not going to be like going to the oven and opening the door and finding the food is cooked. And it's probably going to cause some other problems. It's a cycle that you have to grab it whenever it's available."

The next test is at Malaysia, where some outlets are stating Honda will be take some panic measures and introduce a significant upgrade. RealHondaF1.com understands the upgrades were planned anyway, although are running slightly late, and are part of the normal development plan of the car.

"The car is not a bad car compared to some of the others I've driven in the past," explains Rubens, perhaps reminiscing about his days at Jordan or Stewart. "You can see that it's not a bad car - but to come a race winner? We are still a long way off. It's the second V8 car that I've driven and it's better than last year's.

"But it's still a long way from being perfect like the Ferraris used to be."