Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Honda deployment problem 'embarrassing' - Button

Jenson Button described an issue with his Honda power unit during the Belgian Grand Prix as "pretty embarrassing".

Both McLaren drivers started from the back row of the grid at Spa-Francorchamps after receiving grid penalties adding up to a combined 105 places. Button complained of a lack of ERS deployment early in the race, and says the resulting lack of performance left him unable to be competitive.

"It wasn’t deploying as it should and it wasn’t recovering as it should," Button said. "Basically I was doing the whole straight without deployment, after Eau Rouge, immediately after the top kerb, it would cut. So the whole straight was with a petrol engine. It made it a little bit tough out there, pretty embarrassing really to be fair - so just driving round.

"The last eight laps the guys in front made it interesting – that were lapping me – I was able to have a grandstand view of their race, which was the only bit that was fun really."

And Button says team-mate Fernando Alonso's performance - finishing one place higher in 13th - shows how weak McLaren was in Spa.

“The whole package, on a circuit like this, is a long way off. Fernando was 36 seconds behind the next car and everything was running smoothly – that just shows where we are right now. Monza will be the same, but hopefully reliability wise we’ll be better. Then we get to Singapore, which is our A-game if you like – hopefully that’s going to be a good one.”

Click here for Sunday's gallery of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.