Button could struggle to continue winning trend
Jenson Button is going to repeat all his 'winning details' for Melbourne
Mar.14 (GMM) Jenson Button is leaving nothing to chance.
When he won the Australian Grand Prix in 2009, 2010 and 2012, he stayed in the very same Melbourne hotel room.
The Briton has done the same for this weekend.
And that's not all. "Yesterday I rode the same bike that I've ridden down here for the past three years," he is quoted on Thursday by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.
In fact, not all is going to plan for Button, who arguably had the very best car in the field as he finished last season with a win in Brazil.
Bucking the trend up and down pitlane, McLaren has not just evolved its 2012 car for the last season of the V8 engine rules.
The MP4-28 is all new, and the Woking based team is just starting to 'understand' it.
"If this was the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, I would be worried," said Button in Australia.
"Some of the test laps that were being done there (Barcelona), we couldn't do.
"But Melbourne is completely different."
Indeed it is, and so is the weather in the southern hemisphere, but still it might not be enough. Some believe Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and even Lotus are ahead of McLaren at the moment.
Auto Motor und Sport cited paddock whispers that, on low fuel, Button was a second behind a comparative specification of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes as the test season concluded.
A McLaren engineer is quoted as saying: "It could take three or four races before we can reap the benefits of our approach."
Share Or Save This Story
The season is still very long - Rosberg
Jules Bianchi's father speaks of family's continued hopes
Sauber under no illusions about constructors' position
"It's a business" – Lando Norris explains why drivers don't have more say in F1's rules
Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto share “wholesome” moment after Miami GP contact: “Good sportsmanship”
Why some F1 team bosses think drivers shouldn't have a say in the rules
Rob Smedley sounds alarm on "slightly soul-destroying" Ferrari F1 upgrades
Guenther Steiner explains why Ferrari has no easy fix after McLaren surge
How Ferrari must step up its efforts to end its long F1 championship wait
Indy 500 Day 1 practice results: Alex Palou leads the way at 225.937mph
Scott McLaughlin pushing to avenge last year’s ‘embarrassing’ Indy 500 pace lap crash
Driver arrested and banned after ramming car in the pits, knocking over crew members
Louis Foster: Throwing a yellow doesn’t kill the race, NASCAR does it for fun
How F1's planned 60-40 power split for 2027 will affect each manufacturer
"It's only going to get better" - How Audi is responding to rocky start to F1 2026
Inside the brain chemistry of F1 high performance
Are we at a turning point for Verstappen – and F1?
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments