Sunday: McLaren could not reverse the trend in Melbourne
After poor qualifying sessions, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez could not perform any exploits in Melbourne for the first Grand Prix of 2013. Button benefited from Nico Rosberg's retirement to finish 9th, while Perez finished his first race with McLaren in 11th place. The entire team must rally together to achieve better results next week in Sepang.
Jenson Button – 9th:
« Having won the Australian Grand Prix three times in my career, in 2009, 2010, and 2012, I have to tell you that bringing 9th place home today is not very pleasant. Now, I think we should be satisfied with what we were able to do in Melbourne today. The race was tough and our car is not fast enough, so I think the team did a good job.
Realistically, we scored 2 points today in the championship, bringing my career total to 1001 points if I’m correctly informed, and to be honest, I wouldn’t have thought I could score more today. But, even if it’s a good statistic, it’s hard to admit that we still have a lot of work to do to have a competitive car.
I expect a lot from Malaysia next week. I believe that challenging days are ahead of us, but I hope we will be able to understand the car’s behavior well to optimize performance there.
Sergio Perez – 11th:
« It was a very, very difficult race. I had a good start which is always nice, but afterwards, even though the team did a great job with our strategy, we just lacked pace and couldn’t progress properly during the race. I tried to score points but in the end, I couldn’t reach 10th place. Finishing 11th is never very satisfying, but I believe Jenson [Button] and I had a good race today. I’d even like to say ‘well done’ to Jenson because he managed to maximize the car’s performance to finish 9th.
Our engineers are aware that the car is not as fast as it should be, but I know that I am now part of one of the best Formula 1 teams, and I am certain that we will improve quickly.
Reflecting on this afternoon’s race, I don’t think the Albert Park circuit suited our car perfectly—in fact, it highlighted its weaknesses—so I hope we can fight higher up the hierarchy next week at Sepang.
Finally, today will remain special for me because it is the day of my first Grand Prix with McLaren. It’s a dream for every driver, even though, as I said, it would have been better to score some points… but that will come soon.
