Button keeping faith in Honda

Jenson Button insists he has not lost faith in the Honda project – despite the Japanese company's lack of progress on track so far this season.

Jenson Button, McLaren MP4-30 and Max Verstappen, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR10

Honda had been hoping to be much further up the grid at this stage of the campaign, but is still lagging behind the opposition in overall power terms despite some progress with its internal combustion engine.

Its ongoing woes resulted in an intense media grilling for Honda's motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai at the Italian Grand Prix as he was asked to explain why the situation had not improved as much as expected.

But Button, who is hoping to race on with the team in 2016, says he has not given up on Honda being able to turn things around – and senses there is an acceptance behind the scenes that the Japanese manufacturer needs to make changes in its approach.

When asked if he had lost faith in the way Honda was approaching F1, Button said: “If we did we wouldn’t sit here now and discuss that.

"If we feel we don’t like something, we talk directly to Arai-san and the engineers at Honda. And if we don’t like something with the car we talk to Eric and the main aerodynamicists.

“But we have all been working hard this year. We are the pinnacle of motorsport and we are in the spotlight. I do feel we have had some good meetings and understanding of what we have done. We want things to happen tomorrow but it is never the case in such a competitive sport.”

Progress limited

Even though the scale of progress Honda needs to make is dramatic, Button is convinced that the potential is there to do it.

That feeling is especially true because some of the changes to the power unit that Honda knows it needs to make – like to its compressor design – can only be done over the winter because of F1's engine homologation rules.

“If we look back at the beginning of the season we were struggling to get out of the garage,” said Button. “We have come a hell of a long way, but a racing driver always wants more.

“You always want things to happen quicker, but F1 is so competitive and the engines are so complex and we are so limited in terms of what we can change, that to make the difference during a season is so difficult.

“I can see it is going to improve but none of us knows how quickly. Everyone at Sakura and Woking is working flat out. But you still don’t know when its going to turn a corner and when we are going to start winning.”