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Button led the opening stint in China after a great start

Jenson Button says he’s delighted with the way the season has started, given the problems that McLaren faced in testing.

However the 2009 champ was frustrated to drop to fourth having led the opening stint in China, and admits that he hasn’t fulfilled the car’s potential thus far this year.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” said Button on his website today. “Really, we didn’t have a great winter testing. It wasn’t that the car wasn’t quick, it was more that we couldn’t make it reliable enough to develop it properly.

“It was a brave decision to drop a lot of the new components so close to the start of the season. And it massively delivered for us. As soon as we got to Australia, we knew we had a quick car, and we just started to push hard from there.

“I think we got some good results in Australia. We were even stronger in Malaysia, and we were finally able to put it together in China this weekend. Sure, it’s a little disappointing to have a quick car and to lose out on a few opportunities. I took it on the chin in Melbourne, but it was disappointing that I just couldn’t get the pace out of the car in China. That’s something we’ll be looking at next week.

“But, for us, we should be really pleased with the turnaround. We’ve completed six race distances, which is incredible. Don’t forget, we’re still learning about this car, and some of the lessons we’ve learned on the road will be put to better use once we get back into Europe.

“On a personal level, I’ve also been really pleased with my qualifying pace. Before the season, I said it was one of my aims to improve that, and I’ve been pretty satisfied with how things have worked out over the first three races. Apart from Mark [Webber]’s race in China, I think we’ve seen that it’s difficult to make up ground if you’re not right at the front because you’re really at the mercy of a lot of other cars and their strategies. So getting quali right is crucial, and we seem to be heading in the right direction.”

Button says that the team has learned a lot about how to deal with the tyres.

“I think all the teams are learning about this new style of racing in 2011. I think it’ll get more straightforward as we start to see more of a convergence of strategies and ideas over the next couple of races.

“Obviously, it’s the tyres that everyone needs to get a better handle on. I think all the teams will be looking closely at the most successful strategies and also at what didn’t particularly work. I had a really strong final stint on the Primes in Malaysia, but in China I just couldn’t get the rear end to work. I’m sure we can start to understand why and that’s definitely something we’ll be looking into at next week’s technical review. Hopefully, we can head into Turkey with an even stronger package and with some of our weak spots improved and our strengths increased.”

Meanwhile Button is still busy despite the break before Turkey: “Yeah, we’re back at the MTC next Tuesday morning for one of our regular technical reviews. They happen every couple of months and they give everyone in the team a chance to really look closely at the development path we’re taking, what works and what doesn’t, and what we need to do to improve for the future.

“They’re important meetings, and it’s hopefully going to be a positive day because we go into it knowing we have a car that’s capable of winning races. That’s going to be a massive motivator for everyone back at the factory. Then I’m in the simulator on Tuesday afternoon and most of Wednesday to get us ready for Turkey.”

McLaren revealed a few secrets when Hamilton drove to the grid

Lewis Hamilton says that McLaren can’t sit back, despite its winning performance in China last weekend.

Hamilton admitted that the team needed the boost of a victory but added that it was just the start of the battle for the 2011 title.

“Yeah, we needed this win,” said Hamilton on his website today. “Looking back at the last few weeks, we have done something incredible at this team. To have turned the car around and made it a winner – we’ve never done something that big in such a short space of time. I take my hat off to everybody back at the MTC. Once again, they’ve performed miracles. But we can’t sit still.

“We’ve still got more work to do to be able to match Red Bull. Don’t get me wrong, what we’ve done has been incredible, but we need to go into the Turkish Grand Prix with more upgrades and improvements if we’re to continue fighting at the front. And we know that other teams won’t be standing still either. So although this win is the perfect way to head back to Europe and prepare for Istanbul, this is just the start of the fight.”

Hamilton said the win ranked with Monaco and Silverstone in 2008, his two favourite wins.

“For me, it wasn’t just an attacking race, although there was a big element of pure racing, which I love. Those two wins weren’t just about aggression either – I won those races through pure speed but also with intelligence, and with support from everyone in the pitlane. They were really complete race wins – and they’re the most satisfying.

“So, on the one hand, China was great because we made it work out on the track – it’s always sweeter to win a race when you’ve overtaken the cars ahead. And in my final stint I got past Nico, Felipe and Sebastian for the win, which hopefully was great for all the fans watching.

“But it was also really satisfying because we worked to make the race strategy work from the moment we arrived at the track on Thursday. After Malaysia, I really wanted to make sure we’d have enough tyres for the race, so I went into our first engineering meeting of the weekend with my mind made up that I wanted to hold onto my tyres and keep as many sets as fresh for the race.

“The best thing about Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is the way we work as a team. Our teamwork is incredible. And it would have been easy for the engineers to have just looked at me and said, ‘No’, but they always listen and they always find a way of making it work. We really collaborated to make everything work, even on Friday night, when we pulled the car to bits to improve the car – we always keep pushing.

“So not only did we have a good car and a good strategy going into the race, but we were aggressive and we kept pushing throughout the race. You know, the mechanics and the pit crew worked perfectly and my engineers were brilliant.”

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is bidding to take a stake in F1, according to the company’s UK TV subsidiary, Sky News.

The broadcaster’s city editor Mark Kleinman gave some details of the bid this evening, saying that the company wanted to form a consortium, and that Carlos Slim of Telmex has been approached about joining, along with “people connected to at least one of F1’s big car manufacturers.”

Kleinman said that it may decide not to attempt to acquire a direct stake in F1’s owner but instead bid for the broadcast rights and that in any case discussions were at an early stage.

Speed (USA) and Fox Sports (Latin America) already have F1 deals.

Kleinman also said: “CVC has said repeatedly it has no firm plans to sell F1, but of course private equity firms always sell on their investments at some point, “ adding that “News Corp’s exploration of ways in which it could be a part-owner of F1 while exploiting its worldwide appeal reflects the company’s interest in accessing the one global sports franchise that has so far eluded it.”

In the last few minutes Bernie Ecclestone has denied the story, telling the Daiy Telegraph: “It’s rubbish. The sport is not for sale.”

Crucially, Jean Todt recently made it clear that the FIA will have a right of veto on any sale.

The story clearly has some substance, given its source, but it would seem to be very early days. And Ecclestone won’t take kindly to the premature leak, unless it actually suits him to have talk about a sale out in the open.

The identity of the “manufacturer” is intriguing, and it’s worth noting that Carlos Slim protege Sergio Perez is a Ferrari young driver – and that Todt now has a lukewarm relationship with Maranello, to say the least.

Martin Whitmarsh believes that McLaren can continue to make progress in its pursuit of Red Bull, but he doesn’t underestimate the task at hand.

McLaren has made a huge leap since winter testing, but Whitmarsh knows it won’t be easy to maintain the development momentum.

“I hope and believe we can keep it up!” said Whitmarsh in China. “We’ve just got to keep progressing. It’s always the way, Red Bull won’t stand still, we’ve got to improve at a faster rate than them. From very, very difficult circumstances a few weeks before the start of the season, we made some decisions which were quite bold to completely change our car.

“We shouldn’t underestimate Ferrari and Mercedes, I think they’re capable of responding. It’s early days yet, in truth today was such that you had to get the strategy right, otherwise you didn’t get the results. Today Mercedes were capable of winning, and so were Ferrari.”

Generously Whitmarsh said that he was happy to see RBR rival Mark Webber have a good race: “I’m really pleased for Mark, because let’s face it he’s had a pretty torrid weekend, and a difficult start to the year. That’s a solid result. I didn’t like the fact that he went past Jenson at the end, but he was on fresher rubber, and Jenson did an intelligent job.”

Fernando Alonso was frustrated to find himself only seventh at the end of the Chinese GP as the Ferrari showed an overall lack of performance – and he made it clear that he’s not enjoying the 2011 rules.

Alonso made a bad start and lost out to Felipe Massa for the third time in three races this year. Later he lost a lot of time when stuck behind Michael Schumacher, and while he briefly ran third, he was always destined to tumble down the order again.

“It was very bad the start, a lot of wheelspin, and I lost one position,” he said. “I had to close the door for the Force India [Di Resta] that arrived very quick as well. So we lost a position there. It was not a big problem, because we know this year’s races anything can happen with tyre degradation and pit stops etc. But it was not only the start, the race pace was too slow, so unfortunately we lost our opportunity.”

Alonso admits that he finds this year’s race format frustrating: “With this year’s tyres, some parts of the race you feel competitive, you feel you are doing a good race, and some parts of the race you feel very slow, because there are people who catch you and overtake you without any problems.

“So you need to keep concentration, you need to keep focussed on your own strategy. And in the end when you have a quick car, any strategy is good, as Webber showed today. When you have a slow car, everything is more difficult.”

Rear tyre wear left Jenson Button struggling to keep up the pace after he led the opening stint in China.

Having jumped Sebastian Vettel at the start Button lost the lead at the first stops after he wasted a couple of seconds driving into the Red Bull pit box.

Later he was overtaken on the road by Lewis Hamilton, and then was passed by the flying Mark Webber on the penultimate lap.

“First of all, massive congrats to Lewis, he drove a great race,” said Jenson. “It was one of those races where there was a lot of overtaking, a lot of action involved. It was good fun to be a part of. But I wasn’t quick enough. I really struggled to look after the rear tyres, for some reason. So fourth place was as good as I could get out of the car.”

Button said that while racing 2011-style is fun, it’s frustrating to be caught by cars on newer tyres.

“It’s enjoyable, but you’re also a sitting duck when people have got new tyres. You cant do anything . For example when Webber past me, he was going so much faster. You really can’t do anything, you try and fight back, you don’t have the grip, you don’t have the braking power, you don’t have the traction, so it’s very tricky.

“So a tough afternoon for me for some reason, I didn’t have the pace. It could have been a better, could have been a lot worse. Fourth is OK.

“Getting strategy right is obviously very important. Webber finishing behind his team mate – Sebastian started on pole, Webber was 18^th – it really is amazing. But basically I wasn’t quick enough today, and that’s it. But a fantastic job by Lewis and the whole team.”

Button said he was distracted when he made his pit mistake: “I made it difficult for them at the first stop as well, I was actually looking down when I came into the pits, and went into the wrong pit spot. It wouldn’t have actually changed my race at all, but it just made it a bit tougher for the guys.”

Lewis Hamilton put in one of the drives of his career in China, charging onto the tail of leader Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps, and getting by with five laps to go.

The McLaren driver made one more stop than the German, which left him on fresher tyres for the crucial final stint.

The win was all the more dramatic thanks to an engine problem prior to the grid, which was only just resolved in time to get him out before the pitlane closed.

“I was in the car nice and early to go out and then we had a problem as the car just would not start,” said Hamilton. “I am still not sure exactly what went on but they had to take a lot of the bodywork off and I knew there was six minutes to go.

“Then there was two minutes to go but fortunately everything just came together very quickly. The guys did a great job but, of course, for me it is very important to stay as clam as possible as that reflects on all the guys in the garage. I tried to stay positive and they got the car out which was the most important.”

He charged past Vettel into second place at the start, and later in the race passed team mate Jenson Button in a brilliant move at Turn One.

“Every inch of the race, every second, was incredibly enjoyable. I love being able to fight with different drivers and have the battles and have them at their best. I really felt that today. Whilst the tyres were going off on some of the cars, I felt they were really performing and driving very well to defend their position, so it made that even more exciting.

“I think with the whole thing that happened in the pitlane, I was confident going into the race but perhaps I wasn’t even going to be in the race. I thought I was going to be back with Mark, and obviously just the way the race turned out. I came out behind someone and I think Sebastian came past me at one stage.

“I wanted to pit at one stage and Jenson was pitting, so I couldn’t pit as he was pitting. I had to try and keep things up and I was just able to pull through several cars. I couldn’t believe I was catching Sebastian. He was doing a great job to stay ahead. He put up a very, very fair and strong fight and I am very happy I was able to get by.”

Hamilton was full of praise for McLaren: “We came out to Barcelona with the upgrade package we had there and it really wasn’t working and the reliability was a disaster. We couldn’t even get past 20 laps. Then they pushed very hard in the space of a week-and-a-half, two weeks, and it was just incredible what they were able to bring to Australia.

“Australia was our first race distance and the car has been great. It really has been great.  Red Bull are doing a fantastic job. They are very, very fast. They have got a wonderful car and they are doing the job and we are having to push with absolutely everything we have to try and close the gap.

“I think today we were similar pace perhaps in the race, I think they were generally a little bit quicker, but I think it was just due to us just trying to be a little bit smarter on the strategy and making it work and fortunately it did today. Other times perhaps it won’t work out but today it did so we are very happy.”

Webber's crew worked through the lunch break after P3 dramas

Mark Webber insists that he could have got through to Q2 on the hard tyres, had he been able to get in two timed laps at the end of the session, as the team had planned.

In the end he only got one lap because the car didn’t quite make it out of the garage in time.

Webber’s day was already compromised by an electronic problem that cost him most of P3 and the fact that he had no KERS, which is worth around 0.5s a lap.

“One lap in P3, that doesn’t help,” said Webber. “We were a little bit on the back foot. Obviously the guys did a phenomenal job, we just got the car together minuts before qualifying. We went out and my first run was probably half a second shy of where we needed to be, with obviously KERS as well added on top of that.

“We were on the bubble and decided to go for another run on the prime to have a few laps on it, but we never got out quick enough, so we only had one timed lap, and added to that the tyres weren’t up to temp. So that second set was a bit more difficult to get the job done.

“I was pretty cool with it, but obviously we all started to panic a bit at the end when we knew we weren’t going to get in two laps. The tyre should have been enough, but on one lap it wasn’t enough. That’s where we got squeezed. We snookered ourselves really.

“We had electrical problems in P3, and always we had some upshift problems in P3, so we’ve had a pretty solid day in terms of the car putting up a bit of a fight. But the guys have worked like hell, they’ve done what they can, and that’s the way it goes sometimes.

“At this level you need everything perfect, we know, to be successful. We’ve had it in the past, and we’ll work hard again to get it in the future. We had a tough GP in Malaysia, and we had a tough Saturday here. We just need to try and put some Saturdays and Sundays together. There’s flashes there for sure, that we can do it, put it’s just pulling it all together at the right time.”

Although Webber said it was a team decision, clearly sitting in the car a driver has less idea than the team about the potential cut-off point. Asked by this blog whether he agreed, he said: “When any top team goes out in Q1 we can all put the hindsight goggles on go yeah, we should have done this. In the end for sure options would have made life easier, that’s completely obvious. We could have made that decision, but we didn’t, as a team.

“We all thought we were going to get enough laps in on the prime to get the two timed in, but we were a bit late going out, and they were the wrong tyre as well. The timing was the problem, not the tyre.”

Nico Rosberg showed that Mercedes may have turned the corner in terms of developing the W02 by outpacing the Ferraris to qualify fourth in Shanghai.

The Mercs both looked on Friday, although Michael Schumacher was out of luck today and didn’t make it out of Q2.

“It’s a positive day for us,” said Rosberg. “It’s been very difficult the last few weeks, and today we’ve improved the car, that’s clear, just with very simple, basic things – and obviously a lot of hard work too. It’s nice to see.

“So we’re not there where we want to be yet, but now we’re very close to McLaren, and way ahead of Ferrari, today at least. So that’s a good thing, and even for race pace for tomorrow there’s a good chance I can do a good race, because we’ve improved our race pace too.”

Asked if he could do anything about the three cars ahead, Nico said: “I think I can put some pressure on them. Why not? We’ll see.”

Nico Rosberg showed that Mercedes may have turned the corner in terms of developing the W02 by outpacing the Ferraris to qualify fourth in Shanghai.

The Mercs both looked on Friday, although Michael Schumacher was out of luck today and didn’t make it out of Q2.

“It’s a positive day for us,” said Rosberg. “It’s been very difficult the last few weeks, and today we’ve improved the car, that’s clear, just with very simple, basic things – and obviously a lot of hard work too. It’s nice to see.

“So we’re not there where we want to be yet, but now we’re very close to McLaren, and way ahead of Ferrari, today at least. So that’s a good thing, and even for race pace for tomorrow there’s a good chance I can do a good race, because we’ve improved our race pace too.”

Asked if he could do anything about the three cars ahead, Nico said: “I think I can put some pressure on them. Why not? We’ll see.”

Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that he has been in contact with State Prosecutors in Munich in relation to the Gerhard Gribkowsky affair.

The former banker is being investigated over an alleged bribe related to the sale of the F1 Group to CVC in 2006.

In a statement sent to the media, Ecclestone said: “I have been cooperating with the State Prosecution Office’s investigation of the affairs of Dr Gribkowsky since the outset. When I was informed that there was a first suspicion in relation to my perceived involvement in the matter, I went to see the Senior State Prosecutor and her team in Munich earlier this month to clear up any allegations against me.

“I am confident that when the full facts have been established, I will be exonerated of blame for any wrongdoing.”