F1 testing – Button: McLaren still needs to improve

Jenson Button once again had to face changing conditions yesterday for his penultimate day of testing. The driver of the MP4-28 was still able to set the second time (1'23"181) by completing 72 laps of the track. The 2009 world champion, like his teammate Sergio Pérez, regrets the delay in the development program. The Briton is confident about the foundations of his new mount but hopes to see his team progress before the end of testing. “It's a fun car to drive, but I just feel like we can do a lot better with it than what we're doing right now. That's what makes things exciting. There is room for progress. We are not yet at the end of testing and we are not yet ready to race because we can still do better. We still have some interesting things to try and I hope these last two days will allow us to progress. »

The pilot McLaren also admits that he closely observes the tests of Mercedes where his former teammate Lewis Hamilton decided to continue his career. The 2009 world champion recognizes that the Silver Arrows are showing consistent performance in the winter tests. “I would say the team that has been consistently fast during their stints is Mercedes, more than any other team”, added the Briton. “We'd be lying if we said we weren't watching the times. This is what all the control screens in trucks are for, otherwise we would just have to turn them off. But trying to understand what others are doing remains a difficult exercise. »

Results ? Day 6 Barcelona

1/ Romain Grosjean ? Lotus? 1'22"716 ? 88 rounds
2/ Jenson Button? McLaren? 1'23"181 (+0"465)? 72 rounds
3/ Pastor Maldonado? Williams ? 1'23 »628 (+0 »912)? 75 rounds
4/ Sebastian Vettel ? Red Bull ? 1'23"743 (+1"027) - 65 laps
5/ Nico Hulkenberg ? Sauber? 1’23”744 (+1”028)? 79 rounds
6/ Adrian Sutil? Force India? 1'24"215 (+1"499)? 62 rounds
7/ Daniel Ricciardo ? Toro Rosso ? 1'25 »483 (+2 »767)? 61 rounds
8/ Max Chilton? Marussia? 1'25"598 (+2"882)? 75 rounds
9/ Giedo van der Garde? Caterham? 1’26”316 (+3”600)? 48 rounds
10/ Nico Rosberg? Mercedes? 1'26 »655 (+3 »939)? 120 rounds
11 / Fernando Alonso ? Ferrari ? 1'27 »878 (+5 »162)? 102 rounds