Jenson Button will be eyeing up a landmark maiden Grand Prix victory for BAR this weekend at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the track named after his former team-mate's father.
The outfit that Jacques Villeneuve built has been "on the Button" with a string of podium finishes and a dashing pole position in 2004 - so much so that even Michael Schumacher is worried.
"I think BAR will be very strong in Canada. It will be a tough weekend," said the world champion. Afflicted by delusions of grandeur for too long after its launch six years ago, the British team now believes that Button and Takuma Sato are driving the second fastest car on the grid.
They also believe that the pair have a realistic chance of beating the best in Canada, even though both cars have failed to finish in four of this season's seven races.
"I'm very confident," Button declared happily, revelling in BAR's new found status.
"This is a race I'd love to win, given the chance."
Much to his regret, Jacques Villeneuve never came close to winning at home with BAR.
He will not even be in town over the weekend and that may be a sound decision if Button achieves his target.
As if warning championship rivals Ferrari what to expect, Button reeled off his reasons for being so cheerful in Canada.
"We'll have an improved engine that will help us because it's a power circuit. We know it's going to be quicker, we just don't know by how much," he added.
"The performance of the (Michelin) tyres should be good. The track also demands a car that is mechanically very strong - and our car is."
 Button is hopeful of a maiden win |
The only blot on the horizon is Button's dismal record in Montreal. He has never scored a point in Canada.
"It's been his bete noir on four occasions - he's never finished," said BAR team boss David Richards.
"But maybe those things can be turned to his advantage and we can look at it positively."
The team's technical director, Geoff Willis, is even more optimistic about BAR's chances.
"We expect to be challenging for a podium, and we will certainly be trying to race Ferrari," he said.
"We could have beaten (Rubens) Barrichello at the Nurburgring and Michael (Schumacher) really got away because Kimi Raikkonen held people up."
It is significant that the characteristics of the Montreal track mirror those at Imola where Button broke championship leader Michael Schumacher's peerless hold on pole position.
There are long straights punctuated by chicanes, mixing full throttle with heavy braking.
At the San Marino race, Button led majestically and finished impressively as Schumacher's closest challenger.
 Schumacher grabbed victory last year |
And the Imola comparisons cut little ice with one of Button's rivals, who insists that the Canada circuit requires a more subtle approach.
"The chicanes in Montreal are not like other circuits. It's a different balance between attacking and not pushing too far," said Renault's Fernando Alonso.
"At Imola you can really be aggressive, whereas in Canada you have to be smoother."
According to Alonso's team-mate Jarno Trulli, however, Renault will not be hot to trot in the first part of this North America Grand Prix double.
"The result at the Nurburgring was more realistic of where we are now (in terms of the competition)," added the Italian, who won in Monaco, but finished fourth in Germany
"This will be a difficult race."
And not just for Renault - Canada is notorious for the beating it gives F1 machinery. A rough ride awaits any driver who cooks his brakes, charging and jinking through the corner combinations.
Teams make a point of fitting bigger ducts to cool the brakes which can touch temperatures as high as 1200C in Montreal.
Even without any brakes - as in Canada last year - Schumacher remains a mighty competitor.
That success, holding off a train of healthier machinery, was an all-time great at his most brilliant.
That is the measure of Jenson Button's mission in Montreal.
MMIX
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