Button not satisfied yet

Jenson Button matched his third place podium finish from Malaysia with the same again in Bahrain but the BAR driver is not satisfied yet. Button drove a strong race in Bahrain, aided by the demise of Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams, and teammate Takuma Sato came home fifth. Button is currently third in the drivers' standings behind the two Ferraris and it's the scarlet pair he's aiming to beat.

Jenson Button takes a second consecutive podium finish.

Photo by LAT Photographic.

"It's fantastic to be able to do it two races in a row," he said of his podiums. "But we were still 20-odd seconds behind the Ferraris. This one was a bit more difficult -- there was a lot more going on. We didn't really get the right set-up in qualifying, we had too much understeer, and I realised in the race how much time that cost me. We should have been alongside Michael on the grid."

BAR seems to be the most improved team on the grid so far this season but Button thinks it's not quite there yet, although he is pleased to be fighting at the front of the grid.

"Ferrari is a tough one because they're a long way in front," he conceded. "But if we can get qualifying and the race 100 percent in one weekend then we'd be a lot stronger. Compared to the Renaults and Williams we are very strong."

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn believes BAR's consistency is its advantage. He predicts the team will be one of the serious challengers in the future, especially as other Michelin runners such as Williams and Renault have their own problems.

"The consistency is the thing," said Brawn. "That's where they'll improve next. If you look at Jenson's times in the middle and second part of the race, he was very competitive, he just had a relatively poor first stint."

"They're going to be a threat. In some ways they look to be the coming threat of the Michelin tyre teams because their main competitors are having a difficult time at the moment."