Three-time World Champion Niki Lauda (right) does not believe that Jenson Button has got what it takes to win the coveted title.

Talking to the Guardian, just days ahead of the Honda driver's home Grand Prix, the Austrian said: "You should never say never in the formula one business because whether or not a driver wins the world title is not simply down to being in the right car with the right team at the right team, but also inevitably depends on a certain number of less predictable aspects such as timing and sometimes even a touch of good fortune. Nevertheless, I would have to say at the moment I don't see Jenson becoming world champion.

"As an observer I found the situation in the Honda team this year to be extremely interesting," he admitted. "With Rubens Barrichello joining the team from Ferrari we already had a good picture of how Rubens compared with Michael Schumacher from the standpoint of talent, and now we were going to get an idea of how Jenson compared with Michael via his comparative performance against Rubens.

"To start with Rubens was disappointing, but I understand that he was struggling with the Honda's braking and took some time to get the best out of the car's traction control system. Jenson was initially quicker, but in three recent races the tables were turned and Rubens had the edge in qualifying, something I found rather strange.

"Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen are fundamentally quicker than Jenson," he continued. "The qualifying speed of the Honda has not been bad on some occasions but I'm at a bit of a loss to understand quite why it seems to lose its pace during the races.

"Overall, this is a difficult question to answer," continued Lauda, who won his titles with Ferrari and McLaren, " because you always need the right car under your arse even if you are a very good driver. But even if Jenson was driving something like the current Renault I would still have my doubts. If he wants to be competitive on the same level of Alonso and Raikkonen then I reckon he consistently needs to be about three-tenths of a second a lap faster than Rubens. And he hasn't quite managed that."

In the same interview Frank Williams admitted: "If Father Christmas ever delivers Jenson to our team, gift wrapped, then I'd be delighted."

He did Frank, but Jenson and his lawyers put paid to that.