Button stoic over early Benetton-Renault form

Formula 1 sophomore Button has been loaned to Benetton by Williams, and is currently consigned to the final third of the grid as Renault struggles to make its radical, wide-angle V10 competitive. But the 21-year-old says he was fully aware that the team would not be competitive until the latter stages of the season.

"It is always going to be frustrating, because I am a racing driver," he says in this week's Autosport magazine. "I want to be winning races and it is a long-term thing.

"I know Renault are going to do a good job, the whole package is going to be good and it is just racing. I am putting in as much as I can."

At the official launch of Benetton's 2001 contender, the B201, in February, Renault Sport top brass stressed that they believed the package would only be podium material in the final races of the season - and Button believes that nothing has shifted forwards on that timescale.

"I think it's going to be that long at least," he said. "If it stayed this way all season it wouldn't feel great. When we get to Europe I am sure it is going to keep improving. I am sure next year we will have quite a good package."

The 111-degree vee-angle of Renault's new engine means that internals such as the crankshaft are subjected to extra loading, while speculation persists that the ultra-lightweight castings used in its manufacture are leading to engine flexing.