GreenBkk.com Formula 1 | Button and Hamilton worry about McLaren's readiness

Button and Hamilton worry about McLaren's readiness

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have concerns about the new MP4-26 © Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have both flagged their concerns that ongoing problems with the new McLaren MP4-26 might not be resolved by the time the season finally gets underway in Melbourne in just under four weeks.

While both Red Bull and Ferrari have impressed in pre-season testing, McLaren, which launched later than the others, has been dogged by mechanical issues.

"It's tricky because we haven't had enough testing in the car to do proper set-up work, which is disappointing," Button told the Times. "When you're limited on parts and you have reliability issues, you don't get the testing done. You need to really develop the car.

"It's been bitty in testing. We have had some good runs but the problem is we have not done enough to see our pace compared with others. We've improved but not enough. The next test [at Barcelona next week] is really important. If we went racing now, we wouldn't be quite ready."

Button's views were echoed by Hamilton, who bemoaned the lack of time he has had on the track at Valencia, Jerez and Barcelona. "One day we did only 38 laps," he said. "It's nothing major but we have had mechanical issues at the back of the car and that has really hampered us.

"We have picked up but we are behind on mileage and we can't catch it up on the testing left."

Hamilton also stressed the difficulties the team would face it if failed to hit the ground running at Melbourne. "It is always difficult to catch people," he said. "Wherever we are right now, we will have to do twice as much work with our update package for the first race because so will Ferrari and Red Bull."

Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)