McLaren admit they’re confused as to why Jenson Button had to retire from the Italian Grand Prix, as they’re unable to explain the cause of the failure.
Whilst they know the Briton had to retire from second place because the engine wasn’t receiving any fuel at the time, they don’t know the exact cause behind the issue despite taking his car to pieces.
“This is very unusual in my experience,” team principal Martin Whitmarsh told The F1 Show. “What we do know is that there were 50 kilos of fuel in the car, but it wasn’t where we wanted it – i.e. being put into the engine.
“I can’t recall now in the last few years where we haven’t been able to get to the bottom of it [a problem],” he added.
“It’s a fuel system that the fundamental design hasn’t changed for five years, it’s very complex.”
To avoid a repeat of the issue, the system at fault will be switched for a new one for the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix.
“Clearly as you would imagine, there won’t be one single component that was used in this car in Jenson’s car in Singapore so in all probability we will never see it [the problem] again but that’s not quite as satisfying as saying ‘actually, we know exactly what it was'”.
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