Jenson Button says McLaren-Honda’s efforts to make up for lost ground are “relentless” and hopes to see his team take another step towards closing the gap to its rivals in Sepang.
The 2009 world champion did manage to reach the chequered flag in the season opener, albeit in 11th and last position and two laps down from both Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
What’s more, McLaren reserve driver Kevin Magnussen, who was replacing the sidelined Fernando Alonso in Australia, had an engine failure on his way to the grid and could not start the Grand Prix.
Although he was not satisfied to be trailing the frontrunners by such a significant margin, Button is confident McLaren-Honda was able to learn a great a deal Down Under and remains hopefuls the team can turn things around this year.
“Melbourne was certainly a challenging weekend for us, but there were positives to take from it,” said Button.
“Despite our finishing position, getting to the chequered flag has meant that we’re now armed with much more data about our package and we can learn a huge amount from it.
“Of course, nobody can be happy with finishing at the back of the pack, and we know there is a lot to do to bridge the gap to the rest of the field. However, the work going on within McLaren-Honda both in Woking and Sakura is relentless; the whole team is working tirelessly to keep developing our package to ensure we keep making steady progress."
However, the 2009 world champion stills braces himself for a second difficult race weekend in a row.
“Malaysia will be another tricky step in the learning process for us. It’s often an unpredictable race and the extreme temperatures will test our car and tyres to limits that they haven’t been exposed to yet in testing.
“With the possibility of rain added to the mix, it will be interesting to see how our car behaves in changeable conditions. Our aim is to maximise our mileage throughout the whole weekend.”
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