Jenson Button hopes to prove in Bahrain that McLaren have indeed made a step forward with its new car this season, following what was a disappointing result for the team in Australia.
The teams hopes of scoring were dashed when Fernando Alonso crashed out of the opening race and Button finished just 13th, partly due to poor strategic choices during the mid-race red flag – a result of Alonso's crash.
Button is however confident McLaren have made a decent step forward and hopes to prove that this weekend.
"I'm really keen to get back behind the wheel, as, although it didn’t show in our results from Australia, our package felt very good to drive and the team worked really hard to bring a step forward in driveability from testing to the first race.
"We made a couple of misjudgements on the strategy side in Melbourne, but it’s all part of the learning curve with the new tyre compound rules. Together with the engineers we’ve studied the data and hopefully we can make some good calls in Bahrain, pull together the various stages of the race and achieve a more representative result.
"Bahrain is definitely a tricky track for us as it’s high-speed, but we have a solid platform and improved deployment, so there are some positives to look forward to," he added.
"I hope we can mix it with the midfield pack – it’s a very competitive area of the field – so we’ll be pushing hard to get the maximum from our package as soon as we can."
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