Cause for concern at McLaren

"It's absolute rubbish when drivers say 'we're concentrating on ourselves'. That's crap. It's important to do your own programmes, but you look at the laptimes and you see what people are doing over a longer run. It's stupid not to."

So says Jenson Button, now the most seasoned old-hand in Formula 1, who has been through more pre-season 'phony wars' than any other driver on the grid.

For all the talk of reliability and mileage (and don't get me wrong, that sort of focus is probably more important than ever given the unprecedented regulations overhaul for this season), speed still matters. Laptimes matter. The lie detector (the stopwatch) is always running...

People who go motor racing want to be fast; need to be fastest. If you're too slow, you're in trouble. For all his talk last week that McLaren "has its buzz back", that's why Button sounds concerned as the clock counts down to the first race in Melbourne.

McLaren's new MP4-29 has shown impressive reliability in testing so far, racking up 4029km across the 11 days (though that still puts it fourth in the pecking order, behind Mercedes, Williams and Ferrari).

The car proved fast 'straight out of the box'. Button and team-mate Kevin Magnussen each topped the times for a day of the opening test at Jerez, and the Dane led the way on day two of last week's test in Bahrain (when track conditions were at their best).

But it seems the Woking squad is sliding down the pecking order as focus shifts towards set-up and performance work. In other words, finding out how fast your car is and making it faster.

Button is worried about McLaren's true pace © LAT

Button has expressed concern the MP4-29's long-run pace, never mind its single-lap speed, is not where it should be if McLaren is to recover from its 2013 annus horribilis and challenge for the world championship again this season.

"Last week we felt we were pretty good on the race simulation. This week, not so much so far in the heat," says Button. "On low fuel I don't know, but on high fuel I would say we are lacking compared to a couple of teams out there, probably more than we expected.

"The last test I would have said the Mercedes is very strong on one-lap pace, but the Williams was quicker over a race distance. At this test the Mercedes is as quick as it was. I think the Williams is also. But now you have the Force India, which is competitive, and you also have the Red Bull that looks competitive, the Ferrari that looks a lot more competitive than last week as well, so it's changing all the time.

"We've got a lot of work to do still. I think the basic car is good but we're still waiting for our upgrades. It definitely has potential this car. It has a very good feel about it. We have a very good understanding of the power unit and how to use the ERS. But at the moment outright pace is something we need to work on.

"The first race package will hopefully move us a bit closer to some of the other cars because we are behind quite a few teams at the moment, but I'm not worried."

McLaren appears to be behind. Certainly on pace. At the moment it looks slower than the Mercedes and the Williams, and is arguably nip and tuck with the Force India. Whatever Button says, that has to be a concern.

Perhaps this is simply a natural legacy of last season? McLaren finished 2012 with the fastest car in Formula 1, but decided to go all-out with a radical new design for the following season in an effort to topple world champion team Red Bull.

McLaren had its worst season since 1980 last year © LAT

The move backfired spectacularly, as McLaren endured arguably its worst campaign since 1980 (the last time it failed to score a podium in a single season). In an effort to avoid a repeat, has McLaren been too conservative with its latest concept?

It would certainly be an understandable reaction to probably the most complex set of rule-changes in Formula 1's history. The new 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines with pioneering energy recovery systems, coupled with a 100kg-per-race fuel limit, makes for a tricky balancing act.

McLaren's new racing director Eric Boullier is keen to point out that this season will shift the emphasis from outright speed toward efficiency. You can run the cars with more power and add downforce to chase laptimes, but that's no good if you run short on fuel.

Equally, because teams are locked into running their race set-ups in qualifying, there's little point chasing settings that could compromise you in the race.

The caveat here is track position, and the advantage speed always buys you. Fuel-saving is something everyone will have to manage, and as everyone works out the best way to use the 100kg limit, the races will gradually boil down to the who has the fastest car, not just who can get to the end.

Regardless of the MP4-29's stature in the speed stakes so far, Button reckons the team has still approached this year's design in the right way.

"Last year, if you bounced into the right place in a corner you could be quick, it was so inconsistent," he explains. "Driveability is something we definitely didn't have last year. We've got that now and we've got to build on it.

"Putting downforce on a car is not the easiest thing but it's easier than building in driveability. And it's a lot easier than sorting out a balance issue or a problem with ride like we had last year.

"I'm quite happy with the basic car that we have but I know we need more downforce. But that's coming, and they guys are working flat-out to make it happen for the first race.

"We've definitely done the right thing with this car over the winter."

But have they? The old cliche goes 'it's easier to make a fast car reliable than make a reliable car fast'. If that holds true then Red Bull will be living proof this season, despite the dismal pre-season it has endured so far.

Could Red Bull's problems be hiding their true potential? © XPB

The RB10 could barely leave the garage at Jerez. In the first Bahrain test it could manage a sequence of slow laps, but would break if the team tried to turn the wick up. Then, on day two of the final test, Daniel Ricciardo put together a 20-lap sequence in the afternoon and set the third fastest time of the day.

This laptime was still two seconds adrift of Nico Rosberg's headline-grabbing fastest time from the previous Bahrain test, but it was within two tenths of the day's benchmark (set by Sergio Perez's Force India) and nearly 1.2s faster than Button could manage. And a tenth faster than Magnussen's fastest time on day three...

"I'm always worried about Red Bull," confirmed Button, when asked which teams he feared right now. "If they can put a few laps together you can see their pace. They're strong. It's a good-looking car, it looks like it should work from an aerodynamic point of view and I think when they do get reliability, if they do, they'll be very, very competitive.

"I was driving with Ricciardo for quite a few laps and he couldn't get past me on the straights. He overtook me in Turn 11 instead, which is a high-speed left-hander. I've never seen anything like that before.

"If they can complete a race distance they'll be near the front. We are quicker in a straight line for sure, but I think they know that. They are stronger in other areas that we need to improve in, which hopefully we'll do. In terms of race prep and understanding the power unit I think we're in a great place. We're very good in that area, but we haven't done enough set-up work.

"We've done some very good testing, we've been reliable, we've done some long runs, we've got a good understanding of the car, but at the moment we're not quick enough. That's always going to be the case when you've still got the launch car. So there's a lot to put on for the first race and hopefully that will be enough to put us into the fight in Melbourne."

For McLaren's sake let's hope he's right, because the team surely can't afford another season like the last one.