McLaren should be stronger in Bahrain – Button

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Jenson Button expects McLaren to be more competitive in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

The team finished in the bottom half of the points in Malaysia after scoring a double top three in Australia. Button believes the nature of the Sepang circuit exposed the weaknesses of the MP4-29 and Bahrain should suit them better.

“We have a good engine which helps us here,” said Button in today’s press conference.

“There isn’t as much high-speed as Malaysia. Malaysia was also hot, so hot and high speed corners is very tricky for us. It’s an area we know we’ve got to work on, high-speed downforce. So here should be quite a bit better.”

Button added the 100kg fuel limit will have a greater effect on this race.

“Fuel consumption is pretty tricky here though, I think for everyone, some more than others for some reason,” he said. “So there’s a lot of work needed before the race to get the right balance.”

“And for a night race – our first night race here which should be pretty interesting.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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9 comments on “McLaren should be stronger in Bahrain – Button”

  1. He said the same thing about Sepang too .

  2. If there is one thing I have learned about McLaren over the years is that excuses are all to common and the most common of all is the “this track should suit our car more” excuse, they have been using it for too long now and Jenson doesn’t seem to stop finding excuses. When Lewis was at McLaren I used to get hopeful every time it was stated they’d be quicker at the next race, but 9 times out of 10 they’d show little or no improvement at all, whilst Red Bull would turn up and be quick at every track, no excuses whatsoever. They aren’t quick enough, end of story.

    1. +1 .
      Red Bull know how to turn down expectations and deliver , it has to be said .

    2. Yep, it’s the typical McLaren spiel we hear almost every other race…

  3. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    3rd April 2014, 14:37

    They’ll most probably again be fighting for 3rd, but the cooler conditions of the night race, and fewer high speed corners, I think both Magnussen and Button have got a great chance here.

    1. I hope you’re right but I fear that won’t be the case, as the comment above points out they’re all to often trigger happy on the ‘hopefulness’ of the races outcome before they’ve even set foot on the track.

      In recent years this spiel seems to come all to often Mclaren, their development pace of late has grown to a crawl where as RBR go on leaps and bounds from race to race it’s almost unbelievable sometimes.

  4. Yeah, McLaren should be better. But, after a couple of races, the question is: will they? And to that Button is not sure to respond, I believe.

    A note for Button’s concerning about fuel: how come a racer has to be worried about fuel consumptions? how is that better for competition level?

    1. Is it what it seems that Red Bull is significantly ahead of the remaining pack and that it is a development race between Mclaren and Ferrari to get there .

  5. We are two races in and McLaren should be better in Malasya, Bahrain, Monaco and Montreal, according to Mclaren.

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