Jenson Button crosses his fingers for the Suzuka upgrade
McLaren driver Jenson Button has pinned his championship hopes on the upgrades that the team is expected to test at the Japanese Grand Prix. The British driver finished fourth at the Marina Bay behind Mark Webber due to which the point’s gap between him
and Mark Webber has increased.
Jenson stated that McLaren was expected to be weaker than the Red Bulls and Ferraris at the Singapore Grand Prix and he was satisfied with his fourth place right behind championship leader Mark Webber even though he started ahead of the Red Bull on the grid.
"On the prime tyre, I had an issue with rear-end stability, so not being able to challenge a Red Bull car that had 30 extra laps on its tyres showed us that they were very quick around here today. Nevertheless, it is a circuit where we knew they would be
competitive, and probably one that was going to be difficult for us, so I go to Japan happy,” Button said.
This was a vital blow to McLaren as the team lost many points, pulling them down further from the leaders in both constructers and drivers’ standings. Lewis is now at 3rd place in the drivers’ standings, 20 points adrift and Jenson Button is now
25 points behind the championship leader Mark Webber who is leading it with 202 points. The team suffered severely mainly because both Red Bulls and Ferraris finished in good points causing the team to fall behind marginally. Jenson Button is in a lot of pressure
since he is the current world champion and is hoping that McLaren will help him secure the title for the second time in a row but it seems that the team is in cold waters after a tragic race. McLaren was just 3 points behind Red Bull before the Singapore Grand
Prix but at present, they are 24 points behind the leaders as Lewis was not able to score a single point for the second race in a row. Lewis’ retirement was the major drawback for the team, as he was looking good before his retirement at 4th place
behind Mark Webber. The team is keeping its fingers crossed for the Japanese GP as Suzuka is a more suitable track for the team. Moreover, since the team is expected to upgrade its car, Jenson believes the Japanese Grand Prix will be McLaren’s race.
“We've got a good upgrade for Suzuka: we'll have something that we tried to put on the car this weekend but couldn't - for reliability reasons. Coupled with our planned-for-Suzuka upgrade, it should hopefully be a bit of a double-whammy,” he said.
He believes that the championship is not over yet and no one can disagree with him after the past couple of races where the title run changed its flow completely with reference to the points. It is getting quite confusing for everyone to evaluate the future
with respect to points due to the new points system introduced this year. Yes, it is going to be difficult for McLaren but not impossible. One can give the example of Fernando Alonso while referring to this matter as he came from 5th to 2nd
place in the drivers’ standings in just a matter of two races when it seemed that he is almost out of the chase.
“My championship hopes were dented a little bit by Mark [Webber] finishing ahead of me, but the points gap to the front is just a race victory away. It shows there's still everything to play for - one bad race can cost you a lot of points,” Button added.
The team moves on just like they did after the Monza Grand Prix but be advised, McLaren cannot take another blow as the season is coming closer to its end and we can say that if Hamilton or Button retire in any one of the coming races, their championship
hopes will be crushed for good.
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