By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) – Jenson Button left the Monaco
Formula One paddock feeling more like the long-suffering Honda
also-ran he once was than a McLaren world championship
contender.
His fear, shared by team mate Lewis Hamilton, is that
McLaren are falling behind their rivals at a time when they
should have been powering ahead as others dropped points.
Button, the 2009 world champion with Brawn GP, won the
season-opening Australian Grand Prix with a car that appeared to
be the quickest on the Formula One starting grid as well as the
most attractive.
After Sunday’s sixth round of the season, the Briton looked
at the points standings on the table in front of him and shook
his head sadly.
“It’s my leanest period since my old Honda days,” grimaced
the driver whose last race for Honda in 2008 ended with the car
catching fire. He had scored just three points that entire
season.
“Shit happens sometimes. I’ve just got to clear it up and
move on,” he said.
Button has scored just two points in his last three races
and drawn a blank in three of the six. He scored 25 points in
Australia but just 20 from all the rest.
In Monaco he failed to finish, colliding and retiring with a
puncture after chasing Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham – a car that
has yet to score a point in Formula One – for much of the
afternoon in 13th place.
As he observed with a wry smile, at least the puncture put
him out of his misery.
SMOOTH STYLE
“Since I’ve joined the team everything has gone amazingly
well and after every few races the confidence would step up a
gear, with the understanding of the car and working with the
engineers,” he said.
“Even into this year, with the first race (it was going
well). The first three races were good, I was happy. But
suddenly the last three races, I don’t know where the pace and
feeling I get from the car has gone. I haven’t had that before.
“It’s tough, but it’s nothing we can’t sort out. We will
solve the issues. It’s just whether we do it in time,” said the
32-year-old, whose smooth style means he has struggled in the
past to get vital heat into the tyres.
Hamilton finished fifth in Monaco, after starting third,
and the 2008 champion was also concerned that the team was going
backwards.
“The team definitely have some work to do. I’ve fallen
behind, and race by race we are getting further and further
behind the others,” he told reporters after a frustrating
afternoon on his favourite track.
“I’m still there, but we are falling behind bit by bit,
which is tough for us, but we will keep pushing, keep fighting,”
said the Monaco resident.
“I lost a lot of points and we have to focus on trying not
to lose any more from now on…I have to go back to the drawing
board, find out where we are losing time and work on that.”
Both will be hoping they can regain their edge by the next
race in Canada, a track that has been good to McLaren in the
past. Button won there in a rain-lashed epic in 2011, Hamilton
in 2007 and 2010.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Mark Meadows)
