Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Just finishing a challenge - Button

40

Jenson Button says just reaching the end of tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix would be a success for McLaren.

The two McLarens were slowest of the cars which set times during qualifying, with Button ahead of team-mate Kevin Magnussen on the back row for tomorrow's race. Having been more than five seconds slower than the Mercedes in qualifying, Button says the focus for McLaren needs to be mileage in order to allow it to improve as quickly as possible.

"As you probably know we haven't done a race distance yet, so it's a challenge for us to achieve that, as it would be for anyone without the experience," Button said.

"As long as we are thinking on our feet throughout the race and trying to solve every problem along the way then we can achieve a race finish, which you might say isn't a lot.

"But for us in terms of experience and learning it's a lot and will help us progress a lot over the next few weeks. It's not going to get easy quickly, but the things worth fighting for are always very tough at the beginning."

Button says he is also prepared for more difficult races in the coming months due to an extremely different approach for McLaren.

"We expected as a team this race would be very difficult, and it won't be the last race that's difficult for us. Today, being on the back row of the grid is never where you want to be when you are in a team that is used to winning grand prix.

"But we knew it would be a tough weekend. We've seen that we've been able to get out of the car is nowhere near enough to challenge near the front. But we also have to remember this is a very new package, and I don't just mean the power unit, but the car itself and the philosophy behind the aerodynamics of the car and the airflow. It's all very new."

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

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.