Button blames McLaren mistakes

Jenson Button believes he and Lewis Hamilton have missed out on chances due to McLaren errors © Getty Images

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Jenson Button says McLaren has made too many mistakes this season, resulting in missed opportunities to win grands prix.

Button was running strongly at Silverstone when his front right wheel wasn't attached properly during a pit stop and he was forced to retire, while a communications error in Belgium meant he dropped out of qualifying in the second session. The Spa example is notable because Button still recovered to third place in the race, displaying pace that could have challenged for victory, and he said McLaren could pose a real threat if it cut out the errors.

"We've made too many mistakes this year and haven't got it together on a race weekend, even when we've had the performance," Button told theBBC in Singapore. "That's something we've got to work on. If you look at the last two races, if everything had gone well, we'd have had really good chances. But we haven't done a good enough job. I think we have a car that's good enough to challenge for wins and if we don't make any mistakes and everything goes right we can really challenge Red Bull and Sebastian [Vettel]."

With Sebastian Vettel on the brink of the world championship, Button dismissed the notion that fans would become disinterested if he secured the title this weekend with five races still to go.

"Fans are still going to watch because it's the best racing I've ever seen and definitely been a part of. F1's in a great place right now and even if the championship is over they are still going to watch racing."

Button also said that McLaren would be fully motivated to challenge for race wins, even when the championship is over.

"Winning races is almost as much as winning the world championship because it's such an emotional feeling crossing the line first. The world championship you kind of work up to through a season, whereas a race is over an hour and a half and when you win that race the emotions within the team and the atmosphere… it's unbelievable. That's what we are out to do, win races, and it's not going to change because we can't win the title."

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