Europe: Jenson Button Q&A

Firstly, what have you been doing during the break?

I spent a couple of weeks in the South of France with my girlfriend and friends. I did a triathlon as well in the UK which was quite fun, the London Triathlon. I did the painful bit then I had some fun.

What has been going wrong? Do you genuinely feel that you can be back on top again?

Well, you know we have got to hope. I think we understand the car much better than we did one or two races ago. It looks positive and we have got to hope when we get onto the circuit tomorrow that it feels positive and it is not just what we see in the data. We have made some steps forward since the last race and I think we have also looked at a few of the areas that we thought we had improved in over the last couple of races. We have looked at the possibility of going back on those changes. There has been a lot of work going on in the time that we have been able to over the break and we come here with a positive attitude. We have had a great season this year. If someone had said to me ‘you could win six of the 10 races’ I would have bitten their arm off. It is just they all happened at the start of the season. But we can be strong again. This car is not bad. I think that we have just maybe gone slightly in the wrong direction. But we will pick up our pace for sure. I really enjoy this circuit. I think it is a real buzz to get a good lap around here, so I am looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and seeing where we are.

Is it operational or engineering changes that you have made in the past?

The changes with the car that we have made, some of them are definitely positive. Some of them maybe aren’t so. It does make it very difficult in season if you do take slightly the long direction because you can’t test and you can’t do comparisons and it is very, very difficult going to a circuit that is dusty on a Friday. It is very difficult to do a back-to-back with a big change as it can take a long time to make that change to the car and you lose a lot of circuit time. But I think going through the date we understand the car which is the most important thing and as I said we have made some improvements which should help us a little bit. I know everyone is making improvements but we have got to try and stay on top of it as we need to get some good results. We can’t finish off of the podium. We need to be on the podium as often as possible but it is very, very competitive now. You haven’t just got the Red Bulls who are strong. You have got the McLarens, the Ferraris, the Renaults and even the Williams has been competitive. Nico (Rosberg) has finished in front of me the last three races, so we need to get back on top of it. I have got an 18.5 point lead but that could disappear very quickly. We are not going to get to worried, we are just going to stay positive and work out our issues as we do have an advantage. 18.5 points is quite a bit but we need to make sure that we go into this race and we have a positive attitude and hope that we can get back to the front again.

Ross talked after the last race about having to work back through the data to see what changes had been made, to perhaps try and pinpoint where they might have taken a wrong turning. Have you got any sense from them that they might have indentified the point at which the car went slightly off the rails?

Yeah, for sure. All the way through the season, at every race you arrive at you bring something new and you try something new, be it aerodynamics or mechanical set-up. There are lots of different things that you can try throughout the season and you have to do it at the races. And we know – we think we know where we went wrong. You never know a hundred percent, for sure, unless you go down to the circuit and you do a back-to-back which we will be doing here but we think we understand the car and the issues that we have and hopefully they will be solved at this race. As I said, in the data we think we know a hundred percent where we’ve gone wrong but until you get on to the circuit and test it you never know. A driver’s point of view is very important.

In a very general sense, you can give us any indication of actually what that area is, just so that we can get a sense of what you’re talking about?

I think it’s better for us to leave it as it is at the moment and just get on with the weekend. After the weekend we might tell you.

A question about Michael Schumacher. Do you believe it’s a shame Michael can’t race in Valencia, and are you curious, like many people, what he could have done in the race after two years off?

I’m sure everyone was very excited about Michael Schumacher racing again. He’s achieved more in the sport than anyone and having someone who’s achieved as much as he has back in the sport is for sure very good for the sport, and also another World Champion. For him, I’m sure he’s really, really disappointed that he couldn’t be here as well but he can’t race, so we move on and I think we have a very competitive field anyway without Michael. But I think the most disappointed man, forgetting all of us, has got to be Michael himself. He’s had his neck injury and he’s not able to be on the grid but as I said, life goes on and we’ve got a couple of World Champions on the grid at the moment – well, three World Champions on the grid at the moment – and it’s a pretty competitive field.

Where will you be in 2010? I know it’s difficult to say anything about that at the moment but what can you tell us?

I don’t know, in Formula One for sure.

Have you got a contract?

No.