McLaren’s Jenson Button has claimed that he can still see the team having a great future, despite the rocky start to the 2015 season. This all came after a top British newspaper was of the opinion that Button should have retired last year.
The 35 year old, who signed a new deal last season to drive for McLaren in their reunion with Honda, has hit back at these claims made by the Daily Telegraph, with the bottom line being that Button has ‘nothing left to prove’, and that the Brit should have called it quits at the end of 2014. The article held nothing back and was hard-hitting as the build up to the Chinese Grand Prix continues.
Honda are trying to catch up after missing a year of the new turbo era, and are therefore off the pace, unreliable and McLaren have occupied the back row of the grid in Australia, as well as being pointless and failing to make it out of Q1 this season.
Despite their struggles Button and new team mate Fernando Alonso appear to be happy, with no arguments and are altogether a team in harmony. In the Thursday drivers’ press conference, Button said: "A lot of people have asked me how l am so positive and how the team is so upbeat and it is because we see a great future."
McLaren this week have said that any progress they made in Malaysia will look irrelevant as the Shanghai circuit demands a lot of power, which will take its toll on the Honda engine, which is frail to say the least. "It's always tricky when you start off having done not a lot of mileage over the winter and for everyone it was a big surprise that we finished in Melbourne. For the outside world, they probably didn't think we made a big step from Melbourne to Malaysia, but we did - it was very, very big,” Button added.
You can catch all the goings on of the Chinese Grand Prix here at VAVEL, with live feeds for qualifying and the race, as well as all the reactions of drivers and pundits alike as Formula One heads to China for the third race of the 2015 season.