Button reserves judgement on new McLaren

Posted at 12:00am on 03 February 2010

By Matt Majendie

VALENCIA, Spain, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Formula One world champion Jenson Button made his McLaren debut on Wednesday but said it was too early to tell whether the car was good enough to take him to a second title.

The Briton completed 82 laps in the MP4-25 and was fifth fastest of the seven drivers on track on the last day of the first pre-season test. He said it had been a "tough day".

"It's been a long day and it would have been nice to get more testing done," added the 30-year-old, who won his title with Brawn, now Mercedes.

"I've been doing a lot of work making sure I'm comfortable in the car. I wasn't quite where I wanted to be. I was quite high in the car and uncomfortable," added Button, who worked until 1.00 a.m. with the team in the build-up to the test.

"I had to change a lot within the car. I fit well now and feel comfortable with my head in the car now."

Button knew immediately after his first test with the Brawn last year that he had what he would later call a 'monster' of a car, one that would allow him to win six of that season's opening seven races.

His reaction was more muted on Wednesday.

"It's difficult because this is not the best circuit to get a feeling of how the cars going to be during the season," he told reporters. "It's very different to any other circuit to race on, the balance is very different."

The Briton was some way off the pace of Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who put Ferrari on the top of the time sheets for the third successive day on his debut for the Italian team, but was not unduly worried.

He said the team needed to "put our blinkers on and work with our car and improve it" rather than being distracted by what the others were doing.

"We can say that Ferrari are fast but we don't know how fast," he added. "You can't do those times if you're not competitive.

"We don't know what fuel they're running when they do those times but their slower runs with high fuel were still reasonably good. But it's wrong to talk about who is quick and who isn't.

"Everyone will have updates for the first race so it's difficult to read into it."

Button shared the track in Valencia with returning seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, who has taken the place the Englishman vacated, for the first time since 2006.

The German was third fastest and Button welcomed him back.

"I have a feeling it's going to be a great season," he said. "There's going to be a lot of action. Fans will enjoy the season. There's a lot of differences in the way we'll be going racing so it'll be interesting to see how it goes."

(Editing by Alan Baldwin, To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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