The mechanic forgot to remove a cooling cover from one of his car’s sidepods while Button’s McLaren MP4-25 was on the starting grid. As a result, Button was forced to retire after just two laps when his engine overheated. When the safety car was introduced, the car could not get enough airflow to cool down.
"When you are trying to do your best and you make a mistake it is devastating," said Whitmarsh. "I'm sure the guy who did not pull it out is gutted. I feel sorry for the guy. We all make mistakes," he said. McLaren did not name the guilty mechanic. His mistake cost Button the lead of the championship, with Mark Webber snatching the first position and the unfortunate McLaren driver falling down to fourth place.
"This one was a race stopper," said Button about the cooling cover. The current world champion was initially angry with the mechanic, but eventually accepted that mistakes happen.
However, the Briton was the victim of another mistake, this time on Saturday, when some guy from the pits forgot a remote control for the garage monitor in his cockpit. Button had to throw it out of the cockpit while passing through the Rascasse chicane.
So far this season McLaren has seen a few too many "bloopers". Reliability issues and human mistakes lost the two drivers precious points. A few examples: Hamilton’s useless pit stop in Australia, his wheel-rim failure in Spain, Button’s dashboard failure in Barcelona and, above all, the unexplainable mistake from Malaysia qualifying, when both cars were eliminated after the team kept them in the garage misinterpreting the weather forecast.
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