Button pushed to seek improvement

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Jenson Button will today meet with McLaren officials in an effort to address the team's faltering start to the Formula One season.

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Staff writer

Having won the opening grand prix in Australia, the Englishman has dropped 79 points behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in the driver's championship.

Sunday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the 13th race Button has gone without making the podium, with the driver criticising the quality of his car. McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton has also struggled this season and has fallen 37 points behind Alonso.

"You don't look at the title picture until the last few races," said Button, who will meet team officials at Woking. "Instead you just drive and you try and pick up as many points as you can, but lately that's been difficult for me."As a team, the last few races have been difficult. We're fourth in the constructors' [championship]. That's something we have to sort out because we can't end the season there, or worse. We have to improve."We've a technical meeting which is going to be a sombre one, but I'm sure everyone is going to be very aggressive about trying to improve this car. This is a team that's won multiple world championships and you have two guys in the hot seat that have won world titles as well, and have been very competitive over the last couple of years."At Silverstone, Button felt McLaren had slipped to the midfield, an alarming fall from grace given Hamilton's dramatic win in Montreal earlier this season. "We don't have the pace of the top three teams. At the moment we are racing Williams, Sauber and Force India," said Button."That's where we are, and personally I don't feel they had the best weekend. If they had a good day they would have beaten us, which shows we've a lot of work to do. I know I've had my personal issues with the car but I feel I've not had them the last couple of races, and yesterday I definitely didn't have them."The next grand prix is in Hockenheim on July 22. The race will be Hamilton's 100th in F1, not that the 27-year-old will feel much like celebrating if McLaren fail to again close the gap on their rivals."Time's flying by. I'm getting older," said Hamilton. "Hopefully we'll have this upgrade package."

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Button pushed to seek improvement

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