Jenson Button hopes to do his bit in an "awesome" weekend for British sport, but admits England are unlikely to get much of a World Cup boost from him at Silverstone.

Button's quest for a maiden win in this weekend's British Grand Prix will take a back seat to England's World Cup opener against Paraguay on Saturday, which kicks off just after qualifying at Silverstone.

The 26-year-old will be one of thousands at Silverstone distracted by events in Germany and he believes the backdrop of England's World Cup campaign should bring a special atmosphere to the weekend.

Button, who partied with David Beckham at his pre-World Cup bash, said: "I am patriotic, I want to support my country. I think it's going to be a great weekend awesome."

But Button, gearing up for his 108th Formula One start, believes England's footballers have a better chance of netting a winner's medal than he has of breaking his duck.

The Englishman's season has gone downhill in the last three races, during which time he has only claimed three points to team-mate Rubens Barrichello's 11.

His Brackley-based Honda team started the season promising to fight for a maiden victory with what team boss Nick Fry claimed was the best driver line-up in Formula One.

But those hopes have come to little and Button concedes a maiden win on home soil is out of the question.

He said: "There isn't a British driver who can win the race at this point in time but it's still going to be a great show and the great thing is we have an England match on at the same time.

"What better place to watch the England match than at the British Grand Prix? I think we are going to have good race there. The car is strong around there but it is not as strong as the Renault. I still think it's going to be a good race to watch."

Button has been dogged by just one question for the best part of three seasons, with that first win well overdue.

Since his first podium 2004, he has seemed on the verge of clinching an elusive winner's trophy but approaching his home race, he looks further away from that goal as at any time in the past three seasons.

"There's no use talking about it, you can say what you like but it doesn't change the fact I have yet to win a race," he added.

"Hopefully I'll go through my career and win a world championship and it will all be forgotten."

An awful display at Monaco two weeks ago netted 11th place only by virtue of retirements ahead of him and left the Frome-born driver questioning whether his Honda is up to the job.

"I don't think it's just a front wing issue - it's a car issue at the moment," he said. "We have a lot of work to do.

"As a package we need to improve. Fourth place for Rubens was good but to catch the front team and to do that again is going to be difficult.

"There is a lot we didn't get right with the set-up, me with my engineers. But Rubens in the race was not that great either so that shows there is a long way to go for us to challenge the top teams."

Asked whether any positives could be drawn from his Monaco weekend, the usually optimistic Button replied: "Not really. I think in a way it's good we have had this race because we can see we have a lot of work to do."

How much of that work remains to be done will be seen in qualifying on Saturday if the Silverstone fans can tear their attention away from dreams of an English win elsewhere.