Gamble on second pit stop spoiled race – Button

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

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Jenson Button said a gamble on his second pit stop spoiled his race after finishing out of the points in Spain.

“The start and the first lap cost me a lot of time and my second pit-stop compromised my strategy,” said Button, who ended the race in 11th place.

“During the first two stints, it felt like we were making progress, because we were faster than the cars in front.

“But we gambled on taking the second stop early, thinking we could jump one of the Force Indias, but Daniil [Kvyat’s] Toro Rosso followed me in, and caused my release to be delayed by a few seconds while he came past me in the pit-lane.”

“Then I came out of the pits just in front of Lewis [Hamilton], who was lapping me. He was running old tyres, while I was on fresh rubber; I had to let him past, but it delayed me a bit more.”

Button crossed the line 4.4 seconds behind Nico Hulkenberg, the last of the points finishers.

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Gamble on second pit stop spoiled race – Button”

  1. The car is worse than last years if that’s possible. This is an appalling performance from McLaren…and the fact that Ferrari are in the same boat is no consolation at all…

    1. What is even worse is that, this year they have very significant power advantage over all the Renault/Ferrari running teams. And they are still way off the pace.

      1. @mads what is even worse is that they are by a long way the worst Mercedes customers and it’s a transition year before Honda. Less testing time, less knowledge towards next year…

    2. The aero just looks botched. They have no down force and what looks like a lot of drag. The Williams easily overtook them on the straight with both cars having drs open! How does that happen?

      1. I did notice how easy that Williams overtook the Mclaren. Their car also has the worst understeer I have seen all year

      2. People thought those elements on the rear suspension would generate downforce and drag, maybe would be the next big thing. Maybe they only generate drag.

        1. The rear suspension elements are supposed to reduce drag, so god knows how bad the rest of the cars aero is….

  2. I guess Mac will not provide a good car again, force india is way better guess checo made great move afterall, two things are sure Magnussen would not be able to pull a Hamilton and Maldonado will crash more times than any other driver in F1.

  3. Button is simply not good at leading a team, we saw that last year aswell and people used Paddy Lowe as excuse of making a bad and what excuse people gonna have now ?, fingers should be pointed at the guy who sits in the cockpit.

    1. @concalvez00 A bit harsh. The drivers can guide development. But it’s the designers and engineers who come up with the car, – it’s their fault not his. It is now partly his responsibility to help improve the car. But you can’t blame a driver for the team producing a poor car

      1. You can’t blame the driver for the cars fundamentals but i get the feeling Button doesn’t help things at all and throws the mechanics intro spins about what way they should progress.
        First he struggles getting heat to the tyres and can make even a great car look bad when he does giving completely the wrong impression to the engineers about the car. 2012 is a good example. He had a winning car and he was fighting in the low midfield for many races and that maybe a reason Whitmarsch took the decision not to continue development and go for more innovation that produced that 2013 dog.
        Mclaren actually thought in the middele of the year they took that decision that the car wasn’t progressing well but then they saw they were wrong but by then they already put the 2013 program on a different base. Whitmarsh said so himself. And who made the car look like it wasn’t going very well most of all? Button did.

        Also he likes to be over detailed about every little thing trying to find that optimal setup and i think the mechanics get slightly confused on where they should improve because Button just throws at them a tone of over-steer, under-steer, imbalance and whatever he can think.
        They may think it’s great getting so much detail about the car but in the end it actually hurts them because they just end up over-analyzing instead of just going forward.

    2. I guess it was also Hamilton’s fault then for the dog of a car in 2009, or perhaps the poor reliability of 2012. The driver can have an input, but McLaren are steadily getting worse.

      2010 they were behind Red Bull and Ferrari, 2011 they were behind Red Bull, 2012 they were behind Red Bull and arguably Ferrari again (at least with reliability), 2013 they were behind Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus, Mercedes and possibly Force India too. This year, it looks like Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, Force India and Lotus as well once they have the car sorted. The whole state of affairs is ridiculous for a team, which boasts such professionalism.

      1. Which professionalism? Did I miss something? I think that MacLaren will not improve until Jenson Button (nothing against him personally) is gone.

    3. They have had 4 different sponsors so far this year, my understanding was that teams secure their sponsors years ahead so they do not have to do a sales pitch every race, how did it come to this? And who will back them with the honda engine?

      1. Earth Dreams Mercury Dreams livery for 2015!!!!

    4. In that case, so is Alonso.

  4. McLaren’s sorry performances are beginning to be really, really painful to watch.

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