Button Admits Frustration over Valencia Experience

Jenson Button admitted his frustration over his first experience at the wheel of the McLaren MP4-25 on Wednesday, during the last day of the Ricardo Tormo test meeting. The reigning world champion was only the 10th on the timing reports this week, being almost one and a half second off pace of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

However, his first test with McLaren also included some problems with the seat fitting, as the 30-year old Brit is 7 centimeters taller than Lewis Hamilton. And, since the car was projected and designed after the measurements of the 2008 world champion, Button used the majority of the morning session adjusting his seat.

After a few installation laps, Button returned to the garage as he was sitting too high in his single-seater. The team eventually worked something out for the Brit and he was eventually able to return to the track, doing an overall 82 laps in the MP4-25. While avoiding to call the car “great” – as his teammate Hamilton did a day before – Button admitted the first day was only to get used to the atmosphere and understand the setup of the new car.

“This test was always to get used to the environment inside the cockpit, get used to working with the team and to run through all the checks that you always do at the first test. So it has been very useful, this morning was tough though. We have had to change a lot within the car, but I fit well now which is good,” said Button.

“(...) I never like being too high in the cockpit. It's been good. The team have been changing things very quickly which has been important today. This afternoon we have been able to do some laps which has allowed me to get used to all the systems in the car and dealing with my engineer, working with him while I am on the circuit, and also in the pits. So it has been a very useful day,” added the Brit.

Additionally, he played down the Ferrari dominance throughout the 3 days of testing in Valencia, saying some of it might have something to do with the fuel strategy. However, he did admit that Ferrari look like the team to beat for the time being.

“I think you can say that Ferrari are fast, but we don't know how fast. They can't do that time if they are not competitive, but you never know what fuel they are running when they do that time. Their slower runs, which I'm guessing were using a lot higher fuel, were still reasonably good so I guess they are fast.”