Canada: Jenson Button in the pre-race press call


By Phil Huff
June 8 2007

Honda Racing F1's Jenson Button took part in yesterday's pre-race press conference in Montreal, chatting to the assembled media about the performance of his RA107, how things will improve, and his feelings about the prospect of 20 races, some of them in the dark. Be enlightened with the full transcript of what he had to say...

Jenson, better in qualifying in Monaco; was that a one-off, do you feel?

Yeah, it was an improvement, definitely. I think we were helped by Kimi hitting the wall in qualifying but even so, the improvement was there, and in the race, you can see that we didn't perform as we expected, we didn't get into the points which I was hoping for. But 19 cars finished and we finished halfway up the grid, which is an improvement for us, plus strategy-wise we didn't have the best strategy. We thought we did, going into the race you always do, but it turned out we didn't. Our results in practice weren't correct, with the tyres and how long they were going to last throughout the race, so we didn't get the strategy quite right, but that's experience for here.

Is the major improvement still scheduled for the French Grand Prix?

Yeah, I think that you're going to see improvements. The good thing is that there are lots of improvements coming throughout the year and they're making a difference. We're not putting things on the car at the moment that aren't working which was happening at the start of the season, but Magny-Cours is the race that I'm personally looking forward to. I think here, where you need a very good car under braking, you need to have confidence in the car. Before Monaco I wouldn't have enjoyed this race but now that we have a car that's a lot more driveable and better under braking, I think that we should be able to have a reasonable result here. We really made a step forward with the car at Paul Ricard. The pace might still not be there but the consistency definitely is and the confidence given to the drivers so it's a good step forward and hopefully we can just build on that over the next few races.

You've had a third here from second on the grid in 2004, pole in 2005, so you've had good form in the past.

Yeah, I've qualified well here. First and second in those two years – I can't remember where I was last year – but it's just turning it into the race result here. It would be nice to get into the points. I know that that's tough at the moment because there's so much competition, especially with the reliability at the moment, it's so good with every team, but we've just got to see if we can get a better result than Monaco, because I think we ended the race thinking damn, we could have got more out of it than we did.

Last year Honda was performing much better during the second half of the season, you scored a lot of points. Do you expect to see this again this year or do you think the team should reorganise and focus on 2008 right away?

Well, if we're focusing on 2008 we need to be thinking about making the improvements now. There's no use building a car for next year that's completely different to what we've had in the past. We tried that a little bit this year and it hasn't worked. Whatever we do this season is going to help towards the 2008 car. Obviously that's our goal. As a team, our goals are to win races and in the end challenge for the World Championship. That's not going to happen this year but we need to be working towards next year now which is what we are doing, and I think that our pace is going to improve. I'm not sure if it's going to be quite like the end of last year. It would be nice, a nice way to end the season, but we don't know. So many things can change through the season, as we noticed last year. We started very strong, we had a slump in the middle of the year and then we were strong at the end, and that's something as a team we really do need to work on: to have the consistency throughout the season to fight at the front and that's something that we realise and it's something we're working very hard on achieving.

Could I ask you about one of the FIA proposals for 2011 which is a device that stores horsepower and then when you want to pass somebody, you push that button and get that little extra horsepower. What do you think of that concept?

I haven't really thought about it before. If it helps with overtaking, yeah, it's a good thing, but obviously it needs to be tested and we, as drivers, need to be able to feel that it's the right way because it's something very new to the sport.

The pressure is very heavy on all the teams to get results. As things go on longer and longer the pressures mount. Do drivers worry about their futures, their contracts.... Or do you just accept that your fate is in the hands of the cars and the designers?

It's the same for the drivers as it is for the teams. The performance needs to be there. Both of you need to perform and obviously if that doesn't happen then things change.

Jacques Villeneuve managed to make headlines yesterday by being highly critical of Lewis Hamilton's style, saying that he should even have been black flagged for his so called chopping moves. I was wondering what your thoughts were about that?

I haven't seen it, I've been so far back. I haven't seen any moves at the start of a race, I wish I had but I haven't.

Could I have your opinion on the prospect of night races? Might it be dangerous?

Nothing has really been seriously discussed. I haven't really thought about the idea, there has been too much going on to be thinking about that. There is always the possibility in the future and I'm sure the safety standards will be as they are at every other Grand Prix in the day time, which is obviously all we ask for.

You were saying maybe improvements by Magny-Cours, but as the season has gone on how aware are the people in Tokyo about this? Are they aware? Do you get any sense of what they are feeling? Disappointment?

For sure, everyone is involved and everyone knows the reasons for our poor performances in the first part of the season. Because of those results it doesn't mean there is a bad atmosphere within the team, I think there is a very good atmosphere. Everyone is willing to do what they can to move forward and to make the things that aren't working right. So no, I'm very positive with the atmosphere within the team, be it in Japan, be it in the UK. Everyone is very positive and working very closely together to make things right, which is nice to see. I've been very involved with talks within the team and the ideas that we have and the things that we have coming throughout the season are very positive. So I'm not negative in any way.

Have you been in contact with Tokyo?

I'm in contact with Japan of course. Both personally and through the team.

Could you just enlarge a little bit on your own role in the restructuring of the team for next year and what contact you may have had in Japan?

I'm not going to talk too much about stuff within the team but I think for a driver it's the same with any driver for any team. Their feedback is very important to the feeling of the car. Also making sure that the correct people are in the correct places within the team and we all have the same goal. It's important for every driver to be focussed and show that they are determined to do the best job they can for the team and with the team. If the driver isn't dedicated or focussed then the team is not going to be. But I can say that the whole team are very behind the drivers and the drivers the same with the team and we are all working together for a better future, only time will tell.

A theoretical question. Twenty GP's – are you for or against?

Twenty GP's? I like the idea. Twenty GP's and slightly less testing is the way forward for me. We are racing drivers and we love racing so 20 GP's for me is no problem.