No, the title of this story isn’t a joke. Jenson Button is adamant that McLaren-Honda has the best chance of eventually catching up to Mercedes AMG Petronas and giving them a proper challenge.
We’re not sure we agree with him, but maybe he knows something we don’t. OK he definitely knows things we don’t but what he’s most thrilled about is that his 2015 racer will be easier to develop into a winner than say, his 2014 car.
Jenson told Autosport that “The way the car is is very different to anything I’ve driven that has had a McLaren logo on it. In terms of aerodynamics, the design philosophy behind the airflow of the car, it’s very different.”
And we understand that, and fully support McLaren making their way back to being title contenders. But saying that “I really do think that this is the team that can do that” when talking about someone who is going to challenge Mercedes, might be a bit of a stretch. At least let’s call it wishful thinking.
Button’s best lap in Melbourne (Q1) was 4.5 seconds off the first flier set by Lewis Hamilton at the start of Q2, and even if his car does have a better front end than last years Mercedes-powered McLaren, that’s a heck of a lot of time to make up for.
Still, he seems confident that they can do it while also saying that we will see “big progress from us this year, but don’t expect us to gain two seconds at the next race.”
No worries Jenson, we certainly don’t expect that.
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