Jenson Button revealed his dismay on Sunday after being lapped in the Belgian Grand Prix and finishing a distant 14th in a car that lost the power to compete.
“It’s pretty embarrassing, to be fair,” he said. “I was just driving around and around."
The two McLaren Honda cars completed the race for only the third time this year, but it was not enough to hide the team’s struggle to produce a competitive package.
“We weren't recovering and deploying properly," said Button, referring to the Energy Recovery System (ERS) on his car. F1 cars aren't very quick without an electric motor.
“So, losing 160-180 horsepower – it is quite embarrassing to be floating around the back. At least, when those guys lapped me at the end, I had a grandstand view of their fight."
“I haven’t had this issue before. The pace isn’t good anyway, as you could see with Fernando (Alonso), but when you haven’t really got any deployment on the straight.
“This result shows us where we are right now. It will be the same at Monza,” lamented the Englishman.
Ironically Button is enduring his worst season since he last drove for Honda in 2008 when he only scored 3 points and finished 18th in the championship standings.
At the end of that season Honda pulled out, and the team morphed into the Mercedes powered Brawn GP outfit, whereupon Button won the the 2009 F1 World Championship.
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