McLaren: Jenson Button’s Strange Wish
The desire of every driver on the grid is to beat their teammate. At McLaren, Jenson Button's wishes go against this adage. The Briton hopes to be beaten by Alonso in qualifying, for reasons that are fortunately easy to understand.
It’s an important weekend awaiting Ron Dennis’s team. The Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix must mark a turning point for the team. The team, powered by Honda, will bring significant innovations. They have high expectations for the rest of the season.
These developments mainly concern the McLaren chassis. Among the most noticeable changes are the new nose and wings. The nose will be significantly shortened. However, this development is currently only applicable to Fernando Alonso’s car. While the nose is the most important part, other less visible pieces will be added to complement it. The Spaniard has been designated to use these changes. This choice also relates to the private tests that will take place on June 22 and 23, right after the Grand Prix, in which the two-time world champion will participate. An evaluation of the various parts will be more relevant.
It is in this sense that Button would like to be beaten. A poorer qualification on his part would mean that the novelties have borne fruit. These should help improve the performance of the McLaren. If Alonso happens to qualify poorly on Saturday, then the new parts would not be working as expected, and it would be a bad signal for Éric Boullier’s team.
Jenson Button declared: “It is not shaping up to be an easy circuit for us, which is unfortunate because I really like this place.” And added with a hint of fatalism: “I would love to achieve a good result here, but I am aware that it won’t be possible.”
The weekend is definitely shaping up to be tough for McLaren, as Fernando Alonso will face a twenty-place grid penalty after installing a fifth component of his Honda engine.
The Austrian Grand Prix could therefore mark a positive turning point in the season for the Woking team… or confirm that their uphill battle is still very long.
