Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Button: Alonso pairing crucial to McLaren progress

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Jenson Button says the McLaren driver line-up of himself and Fernando Alonso will prove to crucial in any progress the team makes next season.

McLaren endured a hugely disappointing season with Honda in 2015, with the team ending the year ninth in the constructors' championship with only Manor below it in the standings. With numerous reliability issues magnifying performance problems, Button - who finished ahead of Alonso in the drivers' championship - says having such an experienced driver pairing has ensured McLaren is moving in the right direction for 2016.

Asked if having a good record against a fellow world champion in the same team was pleasing, Button replied: “That’s not the satisfying bit really, that doesn’t satisfy me, I think next year will be a lot more interesting.

"The bit that I’m happy about is that I feel that I’ve done a good job with what I’ve been given. I think working alongside Fernando has been great. We do learn from each other a lot because we’ve both had such long careers in Formula One; sometimes we’ve been with the same team but it has been at different points in our career.

"So we’ve learned so much on our own and then we come together with all that experience and I think it really helps us. With the limited running we have had this year I think it has really helped this team in terms of a direction for next year.

"So that has been a lot of fun, working with him and listening to what he has to say, and from what he’s said it has been the same with me as well. So it’s exactly the situation we need to be in terms of giving great feedback from two experienced drivers, it’s what’s going to move this team forward the most I think next year.”

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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.