Button fearful of wet conditions in Sepang

With tropical showers likely to hit this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix at some point, Button says he is worried about how drivers will cope with a wet track.

And with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix having been marred by several incidents, Button thinks that the intensity of the rain in Malaysia, allied to a lack of driver aids, will lead to trouble.

"I heard they've built some good asphalt run-offs here now," said Button. "That's great because we're going to need it. Here, it never drizzles, it's always outrageous and all hell will break lose without traction control.

"If there is water running across the circuit, it will be tough. In low-speed corners, if you exit and you've still got lock on and hit a river you don't know is there, it will just spin the wheel and you'll be gone. Trying to control it is very difficult."

Button thinks that with modern engines having virtually no torque, it will be very difficult to feed the power in on a track where conditions are changeable.

"Compared to other racing series, we're very light and have an engine with no torque at all. So you'll come out of the corner and apply the throttle and just before you've found the power, you go from having reasonable grip to suddenly having no grip on the river. You will just suddenly spin the tyres up and have no control at all.

"You've got to come right off the power, so it's pretty tough to drive them in the wet. It's very different to most formulas because we just don't have the torque: a lot of power but no torque. So it makes it very difficult to drive.

"You've just got to hope the straights don't have any aquaplaning on them because that's the big worry. If it's wet it could be tough and there weren't many finishers in Fuji and we had traction control back then. If it's the same sort of thing here, there won't be many finishers. And the biggest worry is on the straights."

Although drivers fearful of racing in the wet have faced criticisms in the past, Button is adamant that his concerns are well-justified.

"People compare us to other categories but no other category has the amount of power and such little torque and weight - those are the biggest problems. These cars weren't designed to have no traction control.

"The way the regulations have gone over the last four or five years, reducing the torque of the engine, it doesn't help the drivability and then you take away traction control which makes it a lot worse.

"So it's not going to be easy. I wouldn't mind racing in the wet, as it would make it a lot of fun, but not the downpours we normally get here. I just hope if it does rain we can still go and race."