Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Button ruled out of Bahrain Grand Prix

Jenson Button will not start the Bahrain Grand Prix after McLaren failed to resolve electrical issues on his car.

The 2009 world champion has been beset by problems throughout the Bahrain weekend, stopping on track in three out of the four sessions and failing to set a time in qualifying. While the McLaren was permitted to start from the back of the grid, it remained in the garage as the grid formed.

McLaren confirmed the team worked overnight to try and get the MP4-30 ready to race but when the car was fired up it still showed signs of the electrical problems which have hampered Button since Friday. With the problem causing the car to shut down on track, the team opted not to race due to the high probability of the issue happening again.

McLaren and Honda will now investigate the problem to try and find the cause ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, when a new spec engine will be introduced.

Button's failure to start is the second time a McLaren has not made it to the grid this season, with Kevin Magnussen suffering from a power unit problem and not starting the race in Australia.

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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.