Jenson Button says his McLaren feels the best it has since the end of the 2014 season.

Improvements in both reliability and performance from Honda have seen McLaren enjoy a more competitive start to 2016 than last season, though Button was unable to finish the last race in Bahrain. FP2 two weeks ago saw Button set the third fastest time and he is taking confidence from the recent performance shown by the MP4-31.

“The problem we had in Bahrain was unfortunate, but we couldn’t really talk on the radio about the issue or stop earlier, because the radio wasn’t working properly," Button said.

"So much has happened in the last 12 months, I can tell you that. The car itself is the best it has felt in 18 months, I really enjoyed driving it in Bahrain. Everything was great except Q2, where we messed with something I can’t tell you about and it was quite annoying.

"The race was going well, I was saving fuel and I think we could have had a good race, so that was positive. Hopefully we’ll be able to show the real pace of the car here but when people make mistakes or there are incidents we’ve got to capitalise on it and we didn’t do that in Bahrain."

With rain forecast for Saturday's qualifying session, Button admits he is hoping for wet weather to mix up the field.

"I think here we have a better chance if it’s mixed conditions as everyone can make mistakes. Strategy wise we’re pretty good at the moment, both in qualifying and the race so we are in good shape."

Romain Grosjean column: A start beyond my craziest dream

Chris Medland's 2016 Chinese Grand Prix preview

PROFILE: Paddy Lowe, the pioneer

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Bearman gives harsh verdict on Sao Paulo stand-in

Oliver Bearman got quite the early morning wake-up call on Friday in Sao Paulo when…

7 hours ago

Red Bull still 'looking at the facts' regarding Perez's performance

While his team mate Max Verstappen thrilled the fans with a run from 17th on…

8 hours ago

Sad Colapinto laments two crashes in one day in Sao Paulo

Williams suffered a bruising time on Sunday in Sao Paulo, with Alex Albon unable to…

10 hours ago

McLaren: No regrets over timing of Norris pit stop in Sao Paulo GP

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about their…

11 hours ago

Williams' Boutsen hoists the mainsail in Adelaide

On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…

12 hours ago

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

13 hours ago