Still, it was not all plain sailing for the 2009 world champion at the Circuit
de Catalunya.
On his final day in the MP4-27 before handing over the reins to team-mate
Lewis Hamilton, Button was hoping to familiarise himself with a raft of new
upgrades McLaren have bolted on to the car ahead of the season opener in
Melbourne on March 18.
Instead a hydraulics issue kept him in the garage for much of the day, before
heavy showers limited his afternoon running. In all Button managed just 44
laps.
“When you get new parts, you want to go out and put lots of laps on it in
order to compare it to what you had previously – but we weren’t able to do
that today,” he said.
“We had a hydraulics issue in the morning, which meant we didn’t do much
running.
“So it wasn’t the easiest morning – and then we didn’t do much running in the
afternoon either because of the rain. We put a couple of good laps in but
didn’t get any set-up work done – because of the rain.
“It was nice to drive the new package, and I have a good feeling about it, but
I need to work with it for a bit longer to find the right balance for it.
“Hopefully, Lewis will put some more laps on the car tomorrow.”
Although it is difficult to gauge a car’s true pace in winter testing –
Sauber’s Sergio Perez was quickest and no one team have consistently topped
the timesheets – Red Bull are still widely considered to be the team to
beat.
The reigning world champions have had a trouble-free winter and set tongues
wagging yesterday when they sent Mark Webber out with a new front wing and
completely redesigned rear end.
Although the Australian was only eighth fastest on the day, he did not opt for
the qualifying-style runs that many midfield teams tried.
“People can talk all they want about us but until we are at the top of
the timesheets we have work to do,” said Webber who tipped McLaren, Lotus
and Mercedes as challengers.
“I think McLaren look very strong, and some of the other times done by
other teams were pretty handy too,” he said.
“We have seen some quick times from Romain [Grosjean]. Kimi [Raikkonen]
did not have much of a run today.
“The mystery a bit is the Ferrari.
“Also Nico [Rosberg] is going fast in the Mercedes, so he is quick and
Mercedes is very fast. They are the guys who are extremely strong.”
Asked if he felt it would be close this season, Webber replied: “I think
so, the pack is very tight.
Jenson Button said he had a “good feeling” about his new car after going
second fastest on the penultimate day of winter testing in Barcelona on
Saturday.
“As I touched on several times that we have run, it is very tight
between all the teams and Q2 will be interesting.”