Q & A with Jenson Button

But his new RA107 has so far fallen short of expectations, leaving him realistic about the struggles his team currently face - but keen to get the issues sorted as quickly as possible.

Q. Is the car good or bad?

Jenson Button: It is not great. Well, let me run you through it. When I first drove the car I was massively struggling with locking the rears and rear stability among other things. We worked bloody hard in the last two months to try and resolve the issues, and we have solved quite a few of them but we are still struggling compared to the top teams I think.

The areas are the unstable rear end under braking and a basic lack of downforce compared to Ferrari and McLaren, people like that, and BMW and Renault definitely.

So it is definitely disappointing to turn up here and know you are not going to get a chance to challenge for a win or a podium, but we have to be realistic. This weekend for me is an important weekend but not in the way of results, because I don't think they are going to be that special.

It is more understanding where we are lacking compared to Ferrari and McLaren. We are working on certain things at the moment, which will be around for Malaysia, but there are other areas where we need to realise where we are not strong in. And the only way we can do that is by spending a lot of time on circuit with other cars.

Q. Do you feel deflated by what has happened?

JB: No, because last year we came into the season with the quickest car, so we thought...

Q. No, I meant at the end of the season when you scored more points than anyone else?

JB: The end of the year was not too bad at all. We weren't the quickest but we were scoring a lot of points, and got on the podium in the last race, so I was expecting a good car this year. But you are always expecting a good car and you expect coming into the year that you will have a reasonable chance of winning the world championship. But only one driver has that and there are 21 other very disappointed drivers out there.

All we can do it not get too negative about it, get our heads down and make the difference. We cannot think about winning or getting a podium or we shouldn't be thinking about the importance of points. It is about getting our heads down and working out the issues.

Over the winter we have made progress and the way we have done that is by making mistakes and realising what doesn't work and what does work. We have improved the car a lot but we are nowhere near where we want to be.

Q. Damon Hill said recently that he believed the clock was ticking for you. Would you agree?

JB: Of course we all want to win and it is disappointing not having a car that can win. But you cannot do anything about it. All I can do is push the team as much as I can. I know the team are a fantastic team and they are very good at building a car. But for some reason we have gone in the wrong direction this year and we haven't got it at the moment, but I know it will come back.

It is easy for someone outside to make comments like that. Last year when I won my race Damon said I could be a future world champion, or I will be a future world champion. But then as soon as we don't build a good car, that is it.

McLaren didn't win a race last year, for the first time in a long while, but they have built a very good car this year. Things change so much year to year and it is very easy to change your opinion like that when you are involved and you really don't know what is going on in the team.

Q. So has the time come to start shouting about the situation?

JB: We are pushing hard, Rubens and myself. We are both driving saying how we feel with the car and it is not just us. Everyone in the team is pushing hard and they all think we shouldn't be where we are at the moment, we should be up there challenging with the top teams McLaren and Ferrari, and even BMW and Renault, but we are just not there. And we need to work out the reasons we are not there.

There is no use running and shouting at everyone because it doesn't change anything. With the wind tunnel we have employed a lot of new people, more than double what we had last season, and we were told then, but we almost didn't want to hear it, that it takes time for these people to start their work on their car.

A lot of the people who came last season have not had a lot of input onto this car, so in a way aerodynamically we have a lot less personnel working on it than other teams. A lot of people are working now on the car, but it is too late.

Q. Is it annoying that for so long you have been the number one English driver and now Lewis Hamilton looks like he will get all the attention?

JB: Well, Hamilton v Button this year? There is not going to be any versus at all. They are going to be massively quick compared to us. You can only compete with what you have and we are not going to be competing with the top teams.

Q. Do you accept he will beat you in the drivers' standings?

JB: Not the driver standings, but he will for the first few races. They are much quicker than us at the moment. And that is it really. It is the same as any driver coming in, he has a great opportunity, he is in one of the four best cars on the grid, and it is a great position to be in. Not many drivers have that opportunity when they come into F1, but I think he will do a great job in that situation.

Q. Do you feel he has got all the luck and you have none?

JB: It is a difficult one. I don't believe in luck but I am starting to a little bit. He has a great opportunity but he is not the only person who has had that.

Q. So it is almost the right time, right place for him?

JB: The thing is that things change all the time. Ferrari a few years ago didn't win a race and the only race they won was the race that nobody else competed in, and now they have the quickest car out there. So things change all the time.

But going back to the beginning we haven't got a car that is quick enough at the moment. All we can do is get our heads down and improve it. There is no use getting too negative about it in a way like, 'I can't do anything about it.' You don't move forward then, I don't want to be qualifying 10th or 12th for the whole year so we are going to get our heads down and hopefully improve the car.

Q. Do you look at Lewis and think, 'That was me a few years ago?'

JB: No, it was very different from when I joined F1. I joined with Williams with the first year of BMW engines. I didn't complete enough test mileage because our engines kept blowing up, so I didn't have the superlicence. The only way I got a superlicence was begging because I didn't have enough mileage to get one.

Lewis has got a lot more experience than when I came into F1 and he was in a very good position with McLaren. It is one of the best cars out there and they are very reliable. It is very different scenario and different situation.

Q. You realise you will get questions on Lewis for the rest of the year?

JB: And I don't mind it because I am not competing with him at the moment! I don't mind it. He will do a good job, he has got a good team behind him who he knows very well, and I am sure he has got a lot of people who are confident in him. He has a great teammate in Fernando and it is always great coming to F1 with a great car. And stepping up from GP2 to F1, it is a step but it is not as big as it used to be. GP2 is very close to F1. I am happy for him because he deserves it.

Q. Do you see things turning around this year?

JB: Well we did last year. We had a pretty tough middle of the season and we improved and we won a race. And by the end of the season we were the second or third quickest team. So we turned it around last season and I think we can do it this year. It just would be nice not to have to do it, but we do at the moment.

Q. What has gone wrong? Were the technical team just too ambitious?

JB: Some of it is maybe that. But also a lot of it is the aero of the car. Under braking we are struggling with stability, which means you lose out in confidence because you can't brake where you want to.

Q. What does it feel like?

JB: Well you can't hit the brakes hard. You have to be careful and you start adjusting the brake bias to the front and then you start locking up the fronts. Then you end up having both at the same time.

Q. Is it annoying?

JB: Of course it is. You get quite angry, but it is not just me. The engineers and mechanics feel exactly the same, they can see it on the data. The good thing is we have definitely improved it in Bahrain, it was a lot better at the end of the Bahrain test. The first week it was very tough to get a good balance, we were struggling with consistency, the second week we changed quite a bit on the car and we improved a lot.

Braking stability was a lot better and consistency was better, so it all came together really at the last moment. But still we are long way off the top teams. Our consistency is better, but our first lap time and our 20th lap time is still far off - about a second.

Q. Will it be a struggle to get into Q3 this weekend?

JB: Yeah, I don't think there is a big chance for us to get into Q3 this weekend. Q2 is really the aim and obviously as far forward as possible. Q3 will definitely be very difficult to do.