Button: One change can cause big jump for McLaren

Jenson Button says McLaren is at the stage where improving one area of the car can lead to a major jump forward in performance.

McLaren was comfortably off the pace during the Australian Grand Prix as Button finished the race two laps behind the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. However, Button says the team had to run the car in such a conservative mode just to finish the race that it had a major impact on performance.

With the Malaysian Grand Prix taking place from March 27-29, Button says being able to improve one area of the MP4-30 ahead of that race is likely to result in clear progress on track.

“We know we’ve got a lot of work to do with power, drivability, downforce, and the issue is you’ve got to adjust so many things in the car to save fuel and save everything that it hurts drivability as well which makes it trickier,” Button said.

“So hopefully with a bit more learning there are many areas that we can improve in the next race. You improve one and suddenly you gain a lot of time because other things have started working for you.”

Click here for the full 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.

Recent Posts

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

24 mins ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

2 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

3 hours ago

Ferrari and Mercedes admit to plank changes based on FIA’s TD

Ferrari and Mercedes have both modified their car’s floor element in Las Vegas to comply…

3 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Hamilton continues on top in second practice

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the second time in Las…

4 hours ago

2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

Full results from Free Practice 2 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas,…

4 hours ago