Button pleasantly surprised by V8

Jenson Button and the Honda Racing F1 Team returned to testing in Barcelona last week, trying out an interim version of the new Honda which is equipped with the smaller engines required by the 2006 rule changes. Button was encouraged by his first experience of Honda's 2006 car.

The FIA introduced the V8 engine to slow speeds, but Jenson Button was very pleased with his new car.
"Testing went really well. It was a shame that the weather conditions were not great but even so we were able to progress with the programme and test the V8 engine. The new engine ran smoothly and we had no issues which was great. I also ran in this year's car to evaluate various aero parts and again this went very well. It was a really good test and gave us a lot of information ready for Jerez next week."

Team-mate Anthony Davidson, Honda's third driver, clocked more time in the new car and backed up his countryman's optimism.
"It was good to get into the new car and run it for the first time. The engine felt good although there are of course areas which we can improve over the next few weeks. I was pleasantly surprised with the power and feeling of the engine and its overall reliability. We did a lot of work on driveability and made some positive progress over the three days. It was also fun to get back in this year's car for the last time to see off the V10 era."

http://www.f1technical.net/news/1398