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F1 Hungarian GP: Button holds hope for timely Budapest boost

With the Hungaroring circuit's characteristics suiting the strengths of the McLaren-Honda package, Jenson Button is counting on the race to provide a timely boost to his team's ambitions for the season after recent technical and strategical woes have hampered its progress.

Despite recent gains from power unit upgrades, McLaren pairing Button and Fernando Alonso have only been able to score one points finish between them in the past four races (Button's P6 in Austria) which have all been at high-speed and power-hungry tracks.

Moving to a tight and twisty circuit, which only spends around 55% of the lap on full throttle, Button is confident his McLaren MP4-31 can optimise its strengths at the Hungaroring, a track which has been traditionally strong for McLaren with the most wins recorded by any manufacturer (11).

"In the past couple of years Hungary has been fairly good to us and provided a bit of a boost before the summer break after a relentless few weeks of back-to-back racing, so I'm hoping for more of the same this time around," Button said.

"It suits our car more than some of the other circuits, but of course there are no guarantees, so we'll be putting in the hard work on Friday to make sure we have the best possible set-up for the demands of this quirky track."

The two-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner may feel adding to his wins tally might be a long stretch this weekend but with fond memories and strong optimism heading to Budapest, Button is confident McLaren can enjoy a productive race weekend.

"Both Fernando and I won our first grand prix in Hungary, and it's always a special feeling going back," he said. "It's been 10 years since that first victory - although it doesn't feel that long - so the Hungaroring is a place that holds great memories."

Zdroj: crash.net