Pace of leaders at Brazil was 'scary', admits Button

Jenson Button admitted that the speed deficit between his McLaren-Honda and the cars at the front of the field had really been brought home to him during the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend.

"When they come past it’s scary how fast they are everywhere, especially the straights," said Button, who ended the race a lap down as a result of being passed by both Mercedes and both Ferrari cars during the course of the 71-lap event.

"They’re so far back in the mirrors and suddenly they’re next to you at Turn 1."

That said, Button took heart from the way that both McLarens had gone on to complete the full race distance - something that seemed far from certain after his team mate Fernando Alonso's painfully conspicuous early exit from qualifying with technical issues on Saturday

"I think there are some positives to take from first of all getting two cars to the end but more importantly in terms of the feel of the car," he said. "It does feel like we’re going in the right direction with the car which is promising and hopefully at the next race we will be a little bit better again."

For all any perceived improvements in the car, a lack of any retirements ahead of him meant that Button still finished well outside the points - although even this had a silver lining as far as the driver was concerned.

"We were 12 seconds behind P10 which is probably closer than we expected," he pointed out. "It wasn’t too bad actually; not too bad, still finished 15th!

"In our race simulation it was the same. We thought we’d be two laps down, we saved quite a bit of fuel in the race as well. Nobody wants to be a lap down but if fourth is a lap down it’s not so bad."

Even though it's been far from a vintage year for McLaren or its two former world champion drivers, Button insisted that he still really loves his day job and wouldn't want to be doing anything else - even though he seemingly came close to retiring from Formula One before his one-year option to stay at Woking was finally picked up and confirmed.

"I still enjoy racing. I mean, I don’t like racing around at the back when I’m on my own but today at least we were racing people," he said. "I wouldn’t have re-signed for the team unless I had belief.

"I’m happy with the direction it is going. You always want it quicker than it comes, you always want more than what you get, but that’s everyone in Formula One and we’ve just got to hope that we do a better job than everyone else over the winter."

REPORT: Rosberg keeps Hamilton at bay to win in Brazil

AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix

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