Formula 1 Moto Gp

Monday, August 29, 2011

Button waits for McLaren deal

Jenson Button says he is happy at McLaren © Sutton Images

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Jenson Button says he wants to stay at McLaren next season, and that he is just waiting for the team to take up the option on his contract.

Button is the only driver at McLaren, Red Bull or Ferrari who does not have a confirmed seat for 2012 as his current contract only includes the option for a further year which must be activated. When asked when he would be signing a new deal, Button toldSporting Life that it was just a matter of team principal Martin Whitmarsh telling him that he is to be retained.

"Well, if he (Whitmarsh) takes up the option..." Button said. "All he has to do is say yes, and I will say yes because I want to be here next year. It's up to the team as to when they approach me, but for me I'm the happiest I've been with the car."

After an impressive drive through the field to third place in Belgium, Button climbed above team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the driver's standings after Hamilton crashed out overtaking Kamui Kobayashi. With Whitmarsh defending Hamilton's record, Button said that his team-mate was just unlucky, and that the heightened chances of an accident were a result of the current championship situation.

"I had some pretty bad luck through Valencia, Silverstone and the Nurburgring, and he is getting it now," added Button. "It's tough on both of us. It would be nice to go through a whole season without any of that, but sometimes you can't. Keeping your nose clean is important, obviously, when you are fighting for a championship.

"But in the position that Lewis, myself, Mark (Webber) and Fernando (Alonso) are in, we don't have the luxury of just keeping our noses clean and getting good points. We have to fight for it. That is especially the case when Saturday doesn't go as planned, or the first corner doesn't go as planned, you have to fight your way through. But sometimes it ends with you getting your nose chopped off, or ending up in a barrier, which is not nice, but the way it has to be.";

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Title 'ambitious' but McLaren will still push - Whitmarsh

Martin Whitmarsh: "Probably a weakness of McLaren, and my own personal weakness, is that we don't like not winning" © Sutton Images

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McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh insists his team will not give up in its push for the championship and has revealed that development for 2012 is starting to contribute to the performance of the 2011 car.

With drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton both over 100 points off championship leader Sebastian Vettel, the chances of winning the drivers' title are slim and McLaren is now 131 points adrift of Red Bull in the constructors'.

But when asked if it was now just a matter of hope and pray, Whitmarsh joked: "It depends on your religious conviction, I don't do too much of that myself. I try and work on making the car quicker, minimise mistakes, race well and encourage the drivers to stay focussed and try to win the next races. I think generally that's what we've done in this team and I'm sure there are other persuasions down here [in the paddock] with different gods they might want to pray to, but I don't do that."

Rival team Ferrari recently said it is now focusing on 2012 with some upgrades for 2011, but Whitmarsh believes the two projects are not mutually exclusive.

"You review the emphasis [between the two] all the time of course," he said. "But interestingly here this week we had six performance modifications on the car and one of those came out of the development programme for next year's car. You're always going to try and steal things from next year's car so that will happen and there's not a line that you draw and say this is purely this year's car and on the other side of that car is purely next year's car.

"You're learning and gaining this year and next year and occasionally you learn something in next year's development programme that you can use in this year. I want the car to be quicker in the next race and the race after that and we're going to keep pushing for the time being."

He said the teams also owed it to the fans to keep pushing until the very end.

"We're working on next year's car, but probably a weakness of McLaren, and my own personal weakness, is that we don't like not winning," he added. "I can't help myself, I'm always asking the guys how are we going to make the car quicker next weekend and for the time being we're going to keep pushing, there are seven races and those are seven races we can win. That's got be the goal at the moment, and I think the championship looks pretty ambitious, but I think at the moment we've got to be positive and the fans expect it. If Ferrari or particularly McLaren says we're going to freewheel now, I don't think that's the right message and I think the fans deserve a stronger battle than that."

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Whitmarsh defends Hamilton's crash record

Lewis Hamilton crashed out of the Belgian Grand Prix at the weekend © Getty Images

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McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has defended Lewis Hamilton's crash record this season after he spun out of the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton has been involved in a number of incidents this season from two collisions at Monaco to a clash with his own team-mate in Canada. He has received four drive-through penalties (or the equivalent post-race penalty) and two reprimands for his driving and on Sunday night took the blame for his accident with Kamui Kobayashi.

Some believe Hamilton has been unfairly picked on and in Monaco he said: "You know what, out of six races I've been to the stewards five times - it's a joke, it's an absolute fricking joke." Asked in the Spa-Francorchamps paddock whether Hamilton had become the "crash kid", Whitmarsh was quick to jump to his driver's defence.

"I think he's an immensely competitive and passionate racing driver," Whitmarsh said. "People know they've got to commit quite heavily to get past him and he's always going to commit to go past. I think Lewis Hamilton makes Formula One a more exciting place to be, so we should all hope that Lewis continues to be one of the most exciting racing drivers that any of us have seen. I don't want him to change, I've spoken to Lewis out of the car and I think he's had some disappointments recently and I think the new Lewis has dealt with those very well.

Hamilton's latest drive-through penalty came at the Hungarian Grand Prix when he tried to recover from a spin by pirouetting his McLaren in front of oncoming traffic. Paul di Resta instinctively took avoiding action but was quite a long way from having a collision. Whitmarsh felt the penalty was harsh and said the way Hamilton had dealt with it was admirable.

"I think he was dealt with very harshly in Hungary and I think a lot of people felt that," he added. "He dealt with that with maturity, dignity and in a cool way. That was a step in the right direction I think, so he's learning and developing, but he's a racing driver who's competitive. I'm sure people were saying that at various times, or most the time, in Ayrton [Senna]'s career and they said it for Schumacher's career, in fact I think they're still saying it. So I think with those competitive drivers, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."

Whitmarsh also felt that Kobayashi was to blame for Sunday's crash, but admitted his position was naturally biased.

"My opinion is that Lewis was extremely unlucky," he said. "I think he gave some space, you can always say why didn't he give more, but he gave some space. He had to move over to the racing line and the onus is trying to avoid hitting the car in front of you, in my view, but in these matters my view doesn't amount to much, it's up to the stewards and the stewards felt that it was just purely a racing accident. I felt that Kobayashi was much more responsible than that but perhaps I'm not the most impartial witness."

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Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix 125cc Moto Gp Wallpapers

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Red Bull confident for Monza

Sebastian Vettel's victory was Red Bull's first at Spa-Francorchamps © Getty Images

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Christian Horner says that Red Bull's one-two at Spa gives the team further confidence that it can be competitive at the Italian Grand Prix.

Red Bull has yet to reach the podium at the high-speed Monza circuit, although Sebastian Vettel did win there for Toro Rosso in 2008. Having previously never won in Belgium before Vettel's victory, Horner admitted that it was a result which would boost the team heading to Italy, but that he expected a tough challenge from Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.

"We know that Monza has always, certainly in recent years, been our weakest circuit," Horner said. "We know Ferrari will be strong there, as they historically are. McLaren and Mercedes will be strong there.

"But this result gives us a lot of confidence and we will be going to Monza determined to try and better our previous best result, which is a fourth place there. Again, a different challenge to Spa, but with the performance we have seen in the first and third sector here, hopefully it's signs of a good omen for Monza."

When asked when he would start thinking the championship was Red Bull's, Horner said there would be no complacency until it is mathematically confirmed.

"When it's impossible for anybody else to win it! There are seven races to go, there's still a lot of points available on the board. This is our seventh win this year, it's our 12th pole, we've got a 100 per cent finishing record, but we do not underestimate our rivals and there will be no complacency. We are heads down, focused on the next race - and not thinking that anything is done and dusted at this point of time. We don't change our approach."

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