New Honda team boss Ross Brawn has ruled out an F1 victory in 2008, but is optimistic about the team's long-term future.
A Honda win this season would be "fortuitous", says new team boss
Although Ross Brawn has written off any chance of Honda winning a grand prix in 2008, the new team principal is optimistic about their long-term prospects.
The former Benetton and Ferrari technical director assumed the position late last year, after Honda had followed up the promise shown during the latter half of the 2006 season with an awful 2007.
A poor-handling RA107 car - that was branded a 'dog' by Jenson Button - left the team struggling to score a total of six points in the constructors' championship.
And, although Honda's fans are hoping that Brawn can quickly work the sort of magic which yielded seven world titles in tandem with Michael Schumacher, the man himself has warned that such results take time.
Realistic
"I think wins this year will be fortuitous!" he said during a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
"I think we have to be realistic and say our objective this year is to score some points, to get the team respectable again, to consolidate the team and get everything functioning in the team properly again, so if we win this year it will be very lucky.
"But we have to look at 2009 and 2010. We have a plan now and a programme and I am feeling reasonably confident about the programme.
"Today we don't have a car to win, we will see what happens during the year, but in 2009 and 2010 we can be more optimistic."
