Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Button unmoved by Alonso claims

Jenson Button says he is not concerned about safety following Fernando Alonso’s claims that a steering problem caused his crash in pre-season testing.

Alonso returns for McLaren this weekend having been ruled out of the Australian Grand Prix as a result of his accident in Barcelona, and told a press conference on Monday that the steering locked, causing him to hit the wall. While Alonso also says the data does not show the problem and the cause remains unresolved, Button says he has no concerns about racing.

“I’ve looked at the data and I’m happy to drive the car,” Button said. “My view hasn’t changed on that.”

However, Button admits it’s unusual that the cause of the accident is not completely clear on the data. Asked if he’s ever had a similar situation where he couldn’t trace a problem, Button replied: “Maybe in karting.

“We have a lot of sensors on the car and this team is very experienced in incidents and they - as with every team in Formula One - take every precaution possible in terms of safety.

“It’s one of those things, isn’t it? But after seeing the data and watching the steering trace, my view hasn’t changed from what it had when I saw the data initially. I feel comfortable getting into the car and driving it.”

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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.