Jenson Button 'lost and confused' by complete lack of pace

The 2009 world champion started the race on the harder of the Pirelli compounds but still had to pit before the cars around him using super-softs, having suffered from severe tyre degradation and an overall lack of grip.

Afterwards, the Australian Grand Prix winner described himself as "lost and confused" and admitted he had no idea whether he would be able to resolve the issues in time for the European Grand Prix at Valencia.

"I haven't got a clue what to do at the moment and every time we have good ideas we don't seem to make any progress," he said.

"I love driving an F1 car so I am confident every time I jump in and then after two laps there is no grip anywhere.

"Out of the front pack I was the slowest by a long way, and I am not two seconds a lap slower than Lewis [Hamilton]."

Button added that he didn't believe the problems stemmed from the Pirelli tyres directly, when asked whether the harder compounds on offer in Valencia could help him solve his problems, and pointed towards it being a set-up problem.

"It's not the tyres, it's definitely not a tyre issue. I'm the only person who can't drive the tyres? No, it is impossible."

"I have massive degradation and I stopped before most runners and I was on the prime tyre. Obviously the car with a certain set-up is very quick but what I was driving was not a winning car.

"It's been the same for the last couple of races and I don't know why because it is normally something I am pretty good at. I'm driving round 1.5 seconds slower than the leaders and one is my team-mate but I can't go any quicker."