Upbeat Button claims “there’s a lot in the pipeline”

Speaking ahead of the third race for the new Honda engine, Button admitted that the demands of the Shanghai circuit, including its long back straight, might mean a struggle for the down-on-power unit.

But when asked how big a step the team can make here, Button replied: “Hopefully very big.”

“It’s always tricky when you start off in the winter with not doing much mileage. I think for everyone it was a big surprise for us to finish in Melbourne – from the outside world, they probably didn’t think we made a big step to Malaysia, but we did. We didn’t finish the race, but we got a lot of useful information again to make another step forward.

“We’re going to see what we’ve got here. There’s a very long straight, which makes it very tricky, but we’re all working very well together.

“We still haven’t got the best out of what we have right now, so hopefully we can that this weekend.”

Positive over future developments

Button remains upbeat about the situation, and believes he and teammate Fernando Alonso have much better days ahead.

“There’s a lot in the pipeline for the future,” he said. “A lot of people have asked why I’m so positive, and why the team is so positive and upbeat, and it is because we see a great future. There’s just a lot of hark work now improving before we get there.

“It’s important to make big strides forward, so it’s great having such an experienced driver in the other car. Hopefully that’s going to help us get into the points and then hopefully challenge for something better in the future.”