You may not be a McLaren fan but even if you’re not, you have to admit, they’re having a tough time of it lately. That’s why today’s FP2 session with Jenson Button in third just behind the two Mercedes is a bit of a boost for the team.
Admittedly, this was a team that led time sheets so let’s not get carried away here but still, it’s a good sign that things could be moving in the right direction for the engineering wonks in Woking. Button said:
“It’s nice to have a car that feels good underneath me and we can really work with and see good gains,” he said.
“I think when you look at how far we were off the Mercedes, that’s the time you’ve got to gauge, really. That’s 1.2 seconds.
“I think there will be cars that slip in between us tomorrow, but you’ve got to say that it was a good day for us, and it’s been the best day for a couple of years.”
Australia may not have shown the pace but perhaps McLaren could be running in the 4-8th place instead of the back of the pack and that’s quite a jump from last year’s miserable season.
What do you reckon? Can McLaren take the fight to Red Bull and Williams?
Hat Tip: AUTOSPORT
I really do hope that Mclaren can challenge the teams at the top from hear on. Personally, I want them to challenge Mercedes but thst just might be a little too ambitious
Can you imagine how fast Mercedes would go if they had someone nipping at their heels?!
That’s promising, I’ll be the McLaren / Honda team are all buoyed by that outcome. Hope they can keep this up through out the weekend.
The BBC chequered flag podcast pundits were saying that they thought Van Doorne might show Jenson Button up this weekend. So far the old fella is showing the way.
So far Vandoorne has done a respectable job for his first F1 weekend. Sometimes I feel some forget just how good Button is (he finished ahead of Alonso last year). For a rookie to be just seven tenths away from a World Champion isn’t too shabby. That those seven tenths is the difference between third and eleventh place is an indication of how close it is behind Mercedes.
Button is damn good and when you compare him to his teammates, he usually comes out on top. Just don’t think Ron is a big fan.
Now the weekend’s over, the presenters on the BBC five live broadcast were talking about whether Button’s scared Van Doorne looked so much better. And one of them said ‘Yes he is. Jensen will say some crazy thing like ‘I’dve put er in fifth if mine didn’t break down’ but he’s quaking in his boots’ and then it was so funny I happened to be looking at some F1 news and there was an item ‘Button says he would have finished P5 in Bahrain’ and it just cracked me up.
It will happen, give them time, they’ve come a long way.
Surprising effort from Button; and with Van Doorne at midfield, McLaren just might be in good hands at this point.
Pretty fast for a pool boy hey Grace?!?!? :-()