Button ‘won’t be happy’ with points

Editor

As McLaren close in on the points, Jenson Button says that the moment will "not" be a success as they are a team that should be winning.

Although last time out in Spain much was expected of the Woking team and their Honda engine partner, they failed to deliver.

Fernando Alonso retired from the race with brake failure while Button revealed that his MP4-30 had been "scary" to drive as it was all over the track.

But despite an awful Sunday afternoon, there have been signs of progress from McLaren in recent weeks.

Not only has the team featured inside the top in a practice session but in Barcelona both cars made it into Q2 for the first time.

And although points are on the horizon, Button says McLaren-Honda won't be happy until such as a time as they are winning races and fighting for World titles.

"I wouldn't say it's a new start but it was obviously very difficult for all of us at the start of this year," he told F1i.com.

"We were two laps down at the first race and three and a half seconds off the pace. We knew it would be tough but you never know how tough it's going to be. But the progress has been good and you always want more.

"We're still not happy, even if we score points we won't be happy. It's still not going to feel great, it's still not going to be a position we want to be in because you've got two drivers that have won World Championships, you've got a team that have won many World Championships and an engine manufacturer which has won many World Championships. So we are here to win in the future but there is a lot of hard work here to do before that.

"Every race we go to we'll get asked the same question: 'Do you think you've made enough progress? Are you where you thought you'd be? Where do you think you're going to be?' And none of us can answer it truthfully because we don’t know.

"If we all work hard and we progress and we hope that we progress enough to make everyone feel that we've progressed enough… but inside we know it's going to take a long time. We've just got to enjoy the moments when we do make big progress and we see difference in lap time and difference in feel with what we have."

The Brit was questioned about his new team-mate Alonso, who he says forces him to raise his own game.

"Fernando is, as we all know, a very complete driver. Fernando is a very fierce competitor in the race and to beat in a race you have to do an exceptional job but that’s what I'm here to do, to do an exceptional job.

"I've enjoyed working with Fernando so far this year and I think having two experienced drivers in this team makes a massive difference, especially with Honda because the feedback we give them makes a big difference.

"Not saying too much but I think we both seem to like the same car. We develop a car in the same way, we have the same feeling from a car, so it's good for both of us. We'll see what happens later this year but so far I've really enjoyed it."