Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Recommended for you

NASCAR targets 2032 for new scheduling approach but is working backwards to that date

NASCAR Cup
Daytona II
NASCAR targets 2032 for new scheduling approach but is working backwards to that date

Sammy Smith "moving on" from JR Motorsports after 2026 season

NASCAR O'Reilly
Daytona II
Sammy Smith "moving on" from JR Motorsports after 2026 season

Judge issues mixed rulings after Gibbs, Gabehart, Spire hearing

NASCAR Cup
Judge issues mixed rulings after Gibbs, Gabehart, Spire hearing

Glock lashes out at Dorr team: "There’s an A car and a B car!"

DTM
Nurburgring
Glock lashes out at Dorr team: "There’s an A car and a B car!"

Honda completes historic 2026 IndyCar street circuit sweep with DC win

IndyCar
Washington, D.C.
Honda completes historic 2026 IndyCar street circuit sweep with DC win

Isack Hadjar's Dutch GP withdrawal was "sign of confidence", says Calum Nicholas

Formula 1
Dutch GP
Isack Hadjar's Dutch GP withdrawal was "sign of confidence", says Calum Nicholas

Ai Ogura out of Aragon GP following Japan crash that left him in need of surgery

MotoGP
Aragon GP
Ai Ogura out of Aragon GP following Japan crash that left him in need of surgery

Ferrari must decide if it will run updated F1 engines in Monza this week after ADUO results

Formula 1
Italian GP
Ferrari must decide if it will run updated F1 engines in Monza this week after ADUO results
Breaking news

Button could struggle to continue winning trend

Jenson Button is going to repeat all his 'winning details' for Melbourne

Jenson Button, McLaren

Mar.14 (GMM) Jenson Button is leaving nothing to chance.

When he won the Australian Grand Prix in 2009, 2010 and 2012, he stayed in the very same Melbourne hotel room.

The Briton has done the same for this weekend.

And that's not all. "Yesterday I rode the same bike that I've ridden down here for the past three years," he is quoted on Thursday by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

Jenson Button, McLaren
Jenson Button, McLaren

Photo by: XPB Images

"And I drank a beer in the same pub that I always do. Not that I'm superstitious!"

In fact, not all is going to plan for Button, who arguably had the very best car in the field as he finished last season with a win in Brazil.

Bucking the trend up and down pitlane, McLaren has not just evolved its 2012 car for the last season of the V8 engine rules.

The MP4-28 is all new, and the Woking based team is just starting to 'understand' it.

"If this was the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, I would be worried," said Button in Australia.

"Some of the test laps that were being done there (Barcelona), we couldn't do.

"But Melbourne is completely different."

Indeed it is, and so is the weather in the southern hemisphere, but still it might not be enough. Some believe Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and even Lotus are ahead of McLaren at the moment.

Auto Motor und Sport cited paddock whispers that, on low fuel, Button was a second behind a comparative specification of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes as the test season concluded.

A McLaren engineer is quoted as saying: "It could take three or four races before we can reap the benefits of our approach."

Previous article McLaren title sponsorship deal with Vodafone to finish at end of season
Next article Alonso says Ferrari need perfection to claim the world championship

Top Comments

Latest news