Button not expecting Bahrain to suit McLaren

Jenson Button says the Honda-powered McLaren MP4-30 “isn’t suited so well” to Bahrain International Circuit as the 2009 world champion prepares for round four of this year’s championship.

Although both he and team-mate Fernando Alonso managed to reach the chequered flag at last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the 35-year-old Briton noticed McLaren was still “quite a long way back” at Shanghai.

“China was a tricky race for us although we did see a lot of positives,” said Button. “There’s been a definite step forward at each race so far, although sadly this didn’t translate into the gains on track that we’d hoped for during the race, so we’re busy working out the reasons for that and will channel that into set up preparation for this weekend.

With Honda’s future major upgrade not scheduled to arrive before next month’s Spanish Grand Prix, Button remains realistic over McLaren’s prospects at Sakhir, a venue where he won for Brawn GP during his 2009 title-winning campaign.

“Although our car isn’t suited so well to this track layout, we’ll still be pushing to continue our development as we look forward to the start of the European season and hopefully more gains in performance.”

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