Despite scoring just two points in the opening two races of the season, his worst start to a season since 2008, Jenson Button is still hopeful of mounting a title challenge in 2013.
The Brit, who is trailing current championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 38 points, has had a tough start to the year due to the slow and problematic McLaren MP4-28.
However McLaren are a team renowned for being quick at turning a season around, evident most recently in 2009 where they turned a car qualifying 19th for their home race at Silverstone to a race winning machine just two rounds later.
Button is hopeful that the car will improve as the season progresses, as the team discover the pace of the revolutionary design. The 33-year-old finished ninth in Australia after a poor qualifying session. The car made improvements in Malaysia and he looked to be on course for a strong fifth place finish before a pit stop problem dropped him down the order. He eventually retired from the race but felt a possible podium finish was on.
Talking to the Daily Mirror he said "The championship is still on as far as I am concerned and I am aiming for that. Definitely, Sebastian almost beat me to the title in 2009 and he didn't score for the first four (sic. two) races."
He added "It's a massive turnaround for us" on the pace in Malaysia, "most of the race in Sepang we were quicker than the Lotus. Most of the race we were quicker than Ferrari. Who would have thought that five days before?"
However Button knows that the team have a lot of work to do. "The car is still not perfected, it was really thrown together for Sepang. The great thing is there are so many cars that are competitive and taking points off each other, which is exactly what we need.
"I am a very happy driver at the moment knowing we have improved so much and I know what the team can achieve over the next few weeks to take a strong car to China."
"I have gone from being pretty down in Melbourne to being a lot more positive in the five days between the first two races. Things are not all sorted. We still have issues and need to get the car's ride sorted but in terms of development the car is much better. We've had a massive turnaround."
Sergio Perez also showed this performance jump in his performances. After narrowly missing out on points in Australia, he went on to finish a clear ninth in Malaysia.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
However McLaren are a team renowned for being quick at turning a season around, evident most recently in 2009 where they turned a car qualifying 19th for their home race at Silverstone to a race winning machine just two rounds later.
Button is hopeful that the car will improve as the season progresses, as the team discover the pace of the revolutionary design. The 33-year-old finished ninth in Australia after a poor qualifying session. The car made improvements in Malaysia and he looked to be on course for a strong fifth place finish before a pit stop problem dropped him down the order. He eventually retired from the race but felt a possible podium finish was on.
Talking to the Daily Mirror he said "The championship is still on as far as I am concerned and I am aiming for that. Definitely, Sebastian almost beat me to the title in 2009 and he didn't score for the first four (sic. two) races."
He added "It's a massive turnaround for us" on the pace in Malaysia, "most of the race in Sepang we were quicker than the Lotus. Most of the race we were quicker than Ferrari. Who would have thought that five days before?"
However Button knows that the team have a lot of work to do. "The car is still not perfected, it was really thrown together for Sepang. The great thing is there are so many cars that are competitive and taking points off each other, which is exactly what we need.
"I am a very happy driver at the moment knowing we have improved so much and I know what the team can achieve over the next few weeks to take a strong car to China."
"I have gone from being pretty down in Melbourne to being a lot more positive in the five days between the first two races. Things are not all sorted. We still have issues and need to get the car's ride sorted but in terms of development the car is much better. We've had a massive turnaround."
Sergio Perez also showed this performance jump in his performances. After narrowly missing out on points in Australia, he went on to finish a clear ninth in Malaysia.
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