McLaren driver Jenson Button believes 2013 will be better for him after expressing confidence that the outfit’s new design “will suit him more” than this year’s car.
The British driver, who is close to completing his third campaign with the Woking-based team, has been struggling for performance in comparison with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and has endured his least successful year since his Championship-winning 2009 season with Brawn GP.
While Button acknowledged the qualities of this year’s MP4-27, in which he won the season opener in Australia and the Belgian Grand Prix, he pinned the reason of his unsatisfactory results to a failure to extract the car’s potential on a regular basis.
"For me this year has been more difficult than the last two years,” said the 32-year-old talking to Sky Sports.
“The car is quick, we've proved that on many occasions. But for consistency, for me it's been a little bit more difficult to get the results. The car next year should suit me a bit more, which I'm very excited about.”
This weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas might have no meaning for Button’s – or his team’s – Championship fight, but the McLaren man feels he can still compete for a good result.
“Probably we're the ones that know [the track] the best because probably our simulator is the best on the grid,” said the Briton, who went on to analyse the new venue – the first to host Formula 1 in the United States since Indianapolis in 2007.
“We have a good feeling for the circuit. It's very tough on the cars and the tyres - especially the first sector. Turn 1 to Turn 9 is very fast and it's just changes of direction all the way through. Our car seems to work well in that environment, and then you've got a lot of slow corners towards the end of the lap.”
Bullish as he may feel about his own prospects, Button believes the usual names will also be in contention for major spoils under the baking Texas sun.
“We should be competitive here but I'm sure Red Bull will be, I'm sure Ferrari will be and Lotus,” he added. “So it will be a competitive race and that's what we want as well - we don't want one person to go away [at the front] and win this Grand Prix.”
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