Jenson Button is hoping that improved reliability will be the key to better fortunes for McLaren-Honda in the final races of the 2015 season.
Button was reflecting on the success the team had at Sochi, where both he and team mate Fernando Alonso both completed the race distance. Button finished in the points while Alonso was just pipped to tenth place by Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen in the final moments.
"We took a lot of positives from Sochi: the reliability of both cars was good and we made progress in terms of our pace relative to our closest rivals.
"We need to build on that in Austin, which is a very demanding track for every car. Let’s hope we can put in another good performance."
If the Circuit of the Americas takes its toll on rival cars then Button is optimistic that the team can once again get both cars across the line - and both in the top ten this time.
"Although we were lucky on the last lap in Russia, we haven’t had much luck go our way this season so it was encouraging to come away with two points and get both cars to the finish with no issues."
Button, who recently confirmed that he would be staying with the team for another season, added that he felt that COTA could yet play to the current McLaren's strengths.
"Circuit of The Americas has long straights, heavy braking, fast corners and some twisty sections, but its flowing nature could play to our package’s strengths.
"Last year we really struggled with tyre degradation on the relatively new asphalt, so we need to crack that as soon as we get out on track on Friday and see what we can do to combat it.
"[COTA] has firmly become one of the favourites among the drivers because it has a little bit of everything which makes it pretty demanding for us, but very exciting too.
"In Russia we saw that anything is possible, so we’ll be pushing hard as usual to make sure we’re in with a fighting chance come the end of the race."
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