Jenson Button unsure whether McLaren will be able to unlock full potential of their car
McLaren’s Jenson Button recently stated that he is unsure whether his team will be able to unlock the new MP4-26’s full potential before the season opener in Australia that is expected to take place on 27 March, 2011.
McLaren were not able to complete as much laps as its rivals during the pre-season test sessions that took place in Valencia, Jerez and Barcelona recently. The team revealed their new car after the first pre-season test session which took place in Valencia
and as a result, they were unable to test their new car for a sufficient amount of time.
“I have definitely not completed the laps that I expected to and when it comes to developing a new car it is essential to do a lot of kilometres. This car has a lot of potential, but if the development work is late, there may be a gap in the first races
of the championship,” Button told the media.
Now it seems that McLaren are going to have to work a lot at the fourth and final pre-season test session that is expected to take place in Barcelona.
The 2011 season’s first race was scheduled to be held in Bahrain but due to the ongoing political unrest in the country, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) decided to cancel the race and shift the season opener to Australia. However, the FIA is
also mulling giving Bahrain the season’s last race provided the situation in the country improves.
“It will be an important test for putting everything together, but I think it will be very difficult to get an exact idea of the hierarchy. I've heard rumours that the Red Bull is six tenths faster than Ferrari, and also that Ferrari are one second faster
than everyone on race pace,” Button added.
It would be interesting to see how McLaren perform against their rivals in the new season since the other teams have already gathered enough data from the first three test sessions.
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