The progress of McLaren masked by the Sepang circuit according to Button
After a very good first Grand Prix, the McLaren drivers fell back in the ranks in Malaysia. According to Jenson Button, the MP4-29 did not benefit from the specifics of this circuit and he is not concerned about the development.
After a first Grand Prix where the two McLaren drivers secured the 2nd and 3rd temporary places [pending appeal for Ricciardo], the MP4-29 seems to have fallen back into the pack during the Malaysian Grand Prix, with Jenson Button finishing 6th, 36 seconds behind Nico Hülkenberg. Kevin Magnussen, meanwhile, finished 1 lap behind the leader.
New developments
The great director of McLaren, Ron Dennis, announced that his team had brought its share of developments for the MP4-29. But according to Jenson Button, it is not these new parts that are to blame for the step backwards taken by the McLaren drivers this weekend in the hierarchy: « I think we’ve made a good step with the car. We haven’t done a comparison with the old parts, we can’t with such big aerodynamic changes. So you have to trust the wind tunnel data. For now, all the data has correlated with what we’ve obtained on track. »
These statements from the 2009 world champion are confirmed by Eric Boullier, who urges his team to keep working to catch up with the teams ahead of them: « We have to keep developing and keep working. We will have some updates in Bahrain and I think we are going to bring something to every race. »
But if this decline in the hierarchy is not due to the new parts, McLaren has some ideas about the reason.
A completely different track
Compared to Melbourne, which is an urban track with fairly common weather conditions, the Sepang circuit is extremely abrasive on the tires and is raced in conditions of extreme heat and humidity.
« The strengths of our car have not really been shown so far. Moreover, the heat has made our problems even worse. With cooler conditions, I think we will have a reasonable pace. » explains Jenson Button.
So it will be necessary to see in Bahrain, on a rather hot track where teams have already been able to test their cars, if it will be more suited to the MP4-29, which had been comfortable on the desert circuit during the winter tests.
