Jenson Button reaffirms his commitment for McLaren-Mercedes for 2011 Formula 1 season
McLaren’s Jenson Button has recently stated that he is committed to his team despite the fact that their new car the MP4-26 is not looking so good as compared to the team’s rivals’ respective cars for the 2011 Formula 1 season.
McLaren launched their new car a week later at the second pre-season test session that took place in Valencia as compared to its rivals Red Bull Racing Team, Ferrari and Mercedes GP who revealed their respective cars at the first pre-season test session.
However, the team did not get much time to test its new car as a result and their new car is currently going through some major reliability issues.
The team’s principal Martin Whitmarsh has stated that the team is going to take a risk and apply some major upgrades on the car before the season opening race in
Australia that is expected to take place on March 27, 2011.
Nevertheless, Button is confident and comfortable with the team and he claims that he is going to deliver his best this year once again.
“This (McLaren) has to be the best place to be to fight for a world championship, and that's the reason why I chose to move here. I haven't doubted that. We all go through difficult times and this winter hasn't been perfect for us. But you win and
you lose as a team,” he said.
He added that a driver has to fight out his problems and since tough times make people stronger, this is just going to be an experience that is going to benefit the team as a whole.
Button also talked about his teammate Lewis Hamilton’s future with McLaren that has been the centre of speculation since the past couple of days and stated that it is going to be up to the 2008 champion entirely to make a decision about his future.
“It's Lewis' decision but I think that he feels very much at home within this team. It might be a surprise going somewhere else. It would be a very different environment for him. But I don't think he's thinking like that,” Button said.
However, Lewis Hamilton is going to be a part of McLaren until the end of 2011 for sure and he is hoping that the team will recover from its deficit soon as well.
Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner stated regarding this matter that if McLaren do not give Lewis a good season this year then the British driver will think twice about his future after the 2011 Formula 1 season.
However, according to Fernando Alonso, McLaren are surely going to be one of the top running teams of this year and that they are just hiding their true pace up until now.
It seems that all of the questions regarding McLaren’s pace will be answered at the season opening race that is expected to take place in
Australia this weekend.
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