Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

McLaren can make 'massive gain' in 2016 - Button

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Jenson Button says McLaren can make a "massive gain" in 2016 as Honda can deliver improvements with its energy recovery system.

Following discussions regarding next season, Button signed a contract extension to remain with McLaren in 2016 having been convinced the team will make major improvements. With the Honda energy recovery system [ERS] being a key weakness so far this season, Button says he has been assured it an area which can be significantly improved on next year's power unit.

'Really exciting' McLaren plans convinced Button to stay

"As far as I know - I’m not a fully qualified engineer - but I think that’s the easier issue to solve over the winter," Button said. "It’s not something you can do in season but it is something we can do over the winter, to improve the deployment and how long we are able to deploy for.

"That is a massive step -- deployment is 160 horsepower, so as soon as you lose that and everyone else has got it that’s 160 horsepower plus what else you’re losing with the [internal combustion engine]. That will be a massive gain if we can find time there, more than the race situation than in qualifying, but it’s an area we do need to work on and we understand that.

"Going to circuits that it’s been hurting us quite a lot; these are very long circuits with long straights. It’s the same here. Qualifying is fine but then the race is very difficult. We go to circuits like Austin and Brazil and it’s a lot better, but still it hurts us, so that’s an area we are working a lot in."

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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.