McLaren man looking at building momentum for 2012
Last Updated: September 24, 2011 11:22am
Button: Working for next season
Jenson Button believes the remainder of the season is all about momentum for McLaren.
Ahead of Sunday's potentially title-deciding Singapore Grand Prix, this year's Formula One world championships have become a foregone conclusion for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing.
For McLaren, who remarkably have won just three drivers' crowns and one constructors' title in the last 20 years, it is another campaign in which they have fallen short.
With Button 117 points behind Vettel, and team-mate Lewis Hamilton 126 adrift, there is little to play for other than adding to their two wins apiece this season to at least bow out respectably.
"Finishing second is not really the aim is it, not when you've won a championship?" said 2009 champion Button. "If you haven't won the championship it is probably different, but when you have, you just want to win.
Championship
"It's not going to make any difference to the championship now, but it would be nice as a team to qualify on pole here, or at least the front row.
"Then if we can win the race and continue like that until the end of the season then that is a great starting point for next year."
It is a similar situation for Hamilton, who concedes that finishing second in the championship is, to use the old saying, the first of the losers.
For the 26-year-old, like Button, it is now about pushing on into 2012 with at least a sense that he gave it his all for the end of this year.
"I'm focusing on trying to win a few more races, that would make me happy," said Hamilton. "Sometimes it's important about how you finish, and now it's important about how we finish our season.
"It's about pushing to improve the car and the results, and for me as an individual it's about finishing all the remaining races in a good place so we can take any momentum from that into next year."
Crash out
Button, however, will be hoping Friday's minor aberration is not the start of the wrong kind of momentum.
The 31-year-old locked up heading into turn 14 in second practice, and with a barrier in front of him, was unable to select reverse to make his escape.
It meant Button missed the last 50 minutes of the session, depriving him of vital track time ahead of Saturday's qualifying session.
"We looked at the gearbox once we got the car back to the garage, and happily it's been resolved," said Button.
"It was a little disappointing not to do any more running because I couldn't improve the package. Still, we have some good ideas and I'm confident we'll make more progress."
Credit: Sky Sports (www.skysports.com)
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