Takuma Sato has said that he is confident that he will retain his seat with BAR in 2005.

Asked his plans for next season, the Japanese youngster said: "I'm very happy where I am. I'm obviously very happy with the team and I'm expecting to be racing next year with BAR Honda because originally I had a three year contract, including one year testing and two year's racing of which this year is the first year. So we should be able to develop together and next year as well."

That said, Sato was unable to say when, or if, an announcement will be made. "I personally don't know what is the deadline or which date it will be," he admitted, "but I'm sure this is no longer an issue. At the moment we are concentrating on weekend by weekend, for every Grand Prix, not thinking deeply about next year.

"But we need some stability for the longer development," he added, "so you just carry on what you're doing and extending it to next year."

Asked about the atmosphere within the team following the shock news that Jenson button intends joining WilliamsF1, the Japanese driver admitted that things had been difficult but had now settled down.

"I think it's a lot more settled now," he said. "Two weeks ago it was just shocking everybody, but we are really professional people, I believe and especially at the Grand Prix circuits, the mechanics, engineers and designers, drivers. The atmosphere itself hasn't changed since nothing has happened so we do continue and we are very focused on single races every time."