Button: New Honda engine "biggest improvement" in over a year
McLaren driver Jenson Button says the upgraded engine Honda has brought to pre-season Formula 1 testing is the “biggest improvement” he has felt in over a year.
Photo by: XPB Images
Button completed another relatively trouble-free day of running for the Woking-based team on Wednesday, recording 121 laps and posting the fifth best time.
And the Briton says the improvements Honda has made to its power unit after a troubled first week of testing at Barcelona were noticeable on his return to the cockpit.
Asked by Motorsport.com about the step in performance, Button said: "It's the biggest improvement I've felt with the power unit in the last 14 months, which is good!
"The improvement is good, but obviously we're still a long way off the other guys. You can see that in the speed traps, but you can definitely feel the difference on the initial part of the straight.
"It's positive, I think the important thing is we were able to do quite a few laps. We were held up a bit by some niggles, some red flags, but we've got that reliability which is important."
Set-up focus needed
Button nonetheless admitted that the team had yet to focus much on honing its set-up, which he said would be crucial in order to prepared for the season-opener in Melbourne.
"I don't feel we've done any proper work yet with the set-up, it's been mostly aero work and understanding if we're in the right place or not," he said. "Not specific driver set-up work.
"The next two days it will be fine-tune the car and find a balance that really works. We're not there yet, we need two really good days to feel ready for Melbourne."
Speaking about McLaren's place in the competitive order, he added: "I'm hoping we won't be hanging off the back.
"There's still a lot of work before I feel we are properly competitive, in the next two days to find a set-up that works for us."
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments