Jenson Button praises Sauber for its pre-season performances – Formula 1 news
Jenson Button says that Sauber has shown good competitiveness in the pre-season tests.
Button believes that the first race of the season the Australian Grand Prix will feature a strong showing from the Sauber camp because of the performance the team has shown in the build up to the season.
Sergio Perez topped the second day of the final pre-season test and Button had the chance to drive behind him during the test. The Brit said that he was also impressed by Sauber’s pace when he saw Perez’s teammate Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap time.
He said that he was surprised by the pace and hopes that he does not have to tackle them at the sharp end of the grid during the season.
“I think if you look at the times I think there are a few people that stand out who are very impressive,” Button said. “One is Perez because he did his time on softs (tyres); I think most people did it on super softs. We noticed that in the last test as
well with Kobayashi, he did a 1m22.3s on softs - it's a very impressive time.”
“They've done a great job and they've got reliability. So it's good to see some smaller teams are competitive, we just hope they're not too competitive,” he added.
Button has had a good run in the previous season and finished the season with a second place finish in the drivers’ championship. The Brit heads in the 2012 season with aspirations of taking the world title. It will depend a lot on how the McLaren car behaves
during the season. So far from what has been on display McLaren and Red Bull are favourites for the upcoming season with Lotus not too far behind in terms of how strong their cars are.
The blown diffuser exhaust has been banned and predictions of a close fought 2012 season are rife, the difference might come through the better driver as the leading cars at the sharp end of the grid look very similar in pace and reliability.
The season begins on March 18, 2012 with the Australian Grand Prix as the opening race.
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