Jenson: McClaren to be on the Button

JENSON BUTTON has been buoyed ahead of this weekend’s race in China with the news his McLaren boss, Martin Whitmarsh, has been cracking the whip to iron out the problems with his dodgy motor.

Whitmarsh took the heat for choosing to design a new car from scratch for 2013 rather than just updating last year’s model -- which won seven races.
But the 54-year-old believes his bold decision is starting to pay off after a strong showing in Malaysia.
Whitmarsh said: “I think I am now vindicated for opting for a radical car design and we’ve only touched the surface of what this car can do.
”I’m passionate about what I do and I don’t like it when things don’t go right. We’ve all got a job to do and I’m never shy of facing up to things when it’s needed.
”We have a lot of bright and motivated people here and if you try and impose decisions using pips and stripes saying ‘I’m in charge and this is the way it’s going to be’ you’ll fail.
"I hope and believe I’ve got a reasonable amount of persuasive influence because, the team respect that I play it straight, even if behind closed doors I am pretty brutally frank.
”We’ve got some good data and now we’ve got to go out there and try and prove a point.
”We know what we did in Sepang wasn’t optimal; it wasn’t the best the car can be.
“But I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t take another step in China. That’s what we are planning to do.”