McLaren drivers happy to see the chequered flag

Although McLaren were once again outside of the points, with 15th for Jenson Button and 16th for Fernando Alonso, both drivers were glad to at least finish the race. However, Alonso had a tough time of it with some reliability worries as well as starting last on the grid having changed his power unit after qualifying.

“I think finishing the race was the first priority after some retirements,” he said, “Unfortunately the car was not working 100% from the beginning with different power in different gears, so that was a little bit strange to drive sometimes. At least we finished and hopefully we’ll take some data for next year especially.”

Button said: “P15 is not great. We were 12 seconds off P10 which I think is probably closer than we expected. I actually had some good fights out there, we know where our weaknesses are, concentrate on our strengths and we could have some good little fights.

“Reasonably enjoyable driving the car, and we’ve made a step forward. On Tuesday, when I’m at the MTC [McLaren Technology Centre], obviously we’ll look through the data, look at where we go from here. I’m happy that our input is helping the team move forward.”

Both drivers commented earlier in the week that they have confidence McLaren will be strong next year, and Button reassured the fans that this would be the case after the race:

“I wouldn’t have resigned for the team if I didn’t have belief in Ron and his leadership but also in Honda and the guys at MTC. Every time I’m in we sit down with the aerodynamicists and the engineers and we discuss where we are, where we’re going and whether our ideas are going in the right direction and it’s really interesting, so I’m happy with where the direction’s going.

“You always want it quicker than it comes, you always want more than what you get, but that’s everyone in Formula One and we’ve just got to hope that we do better than everyone else over the winter”

#f1