McLaren driver Button says Monaco Grand Prix best opportunity for scoring pole position – Formula 1
McLaren driver Jenson Button has said that he is hoping to make the most out of the Monaco Grand Prix as it is going to be the best opportunity for his team to outperform Red Bull Racing.
Red Bull have dominated the qualifying sessions of the 2011 Formula 1 season by a noticeable margin so far. They have a perfect pole position scoring record this season as the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel has scored four pole positions while
his teammate Mark Webber scored the pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.
McLaren on the other hand have managed just one win at the Chinese Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton overtook Vettel’s RB7 in the last few laps of the race. The rest of the races were won by the current championship leader Vettel as a result of which, McLaren
are Red Bull’s closest rivals according to the drivers’ and constructors’ standings.
However, Button believes that catching up with the pace of the RB7 is not possible for McLaren as that would require some major improvements in the aerodynamics area.
“If you look at the difference in pace in qualifying you'd say the difference in lap time is probably about 30 points of downforce. You're not going find that for probably six or seven races. So it's a difficult one in qualifying. I can't see us, in the
near future, beating them in qualifying. Unless it's a very unusual circumstance, maybe like Monaco,” said the 2009 Formula 1 world champion.
He added that McLaren have very good pace during the races as Lewis Hamilton finished just six tenths of a second behind the race winner of the Spanish Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel.
“No, not really, I don't think any of us know. We think they have a lot more downforce than us, but then we don't understand why they don't have that pace in the race. It's a tough one,” said Button when asked about the reason for the major pace difference
during the race.
The upcoming race is going to be a very good opportunity for McLaren and it is going to be interesting to see how the teams plan their respective race strategies this weekend.
Tags: