Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Temperatures in China could hurt McLaren

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Jenson Button believes the lower temperatures expected at the Chinese Grand Prix could negate some of McLaren’s strengths next weekend.

McLaren displayed a clear step forward between the first and second races of the season, with Button and team-mate Fernando Alonso able to race at the back of the midfield before both retired from the Malaysian Grand Prix.

With high temperatures at Sepang, Button says he could see the MP4-30’s strengths as the car showed good performance in high speed corners, and while he doesn’t believe the power from the Honda engine will be any more of a handicap in China he feels lower temperatures could have an impact.

“I don’t think it will be much trickier than here,” Button said. “I think the trickier thing will be it’s cooler, so we will not get the benefit we had [in Malaysia] of having higher downforce than other cars, so they’ll be stronger probably.

“Hopefully we’ll have a big improvement in terms of power and a few things aerodynamically to help us along. But it’s moving in the right direction and I’m already surprised that we’re racing cars, it’s great to see. The guys have done a fantastic job."

Click here for a more lighthearted look at some of the scenes from the Malaysian Grand Prix

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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.