Button: tyre issues not fully resolved

The Briton took pole position in Melbourne but struggled for grip in the cold conditions of the race as he slumped down the field before his engine blew up at the final corner of the race.

After the event, Button urged his team to try and find a solution during tests at Vallelunga and Barcelona, but despite some progress on the matter he is not confident that the problems are completely behind them.

"We have solved a few of the issues, but not completely," the Briton said. "It is going to take a bit more time.

"Hopefully, it is going to be warm here and it is not going to be an issue anyway, but I am sure there will be a time during the season where we are going to have a cold race, so we need to solve this."

When asked how long he thinks it would take for Honda to fully resolve the issue, Button said: "Hopefully sooner rather than later, but it is difficult to say.

"We have solved a lot of the reasons, which is to do with traction control and a few other things, and they have improved. But we haven't been anywhere cold since Melbourne, so we don't know if we have completely solved the problem.

"Looking at the data, we have done a good job of improving our situation, but we don't know how much yet. Nurburgring will probably show us where we stand."

Button admitted that he was still feeling the disappointment of his Melbourne performance - although he was fully focused on making sure there was no repeat of the dramas in the future.

"At least I went out in spectacular fashion," he said of his last-lap engine failure. "It was a tough race, especially after being on pole position and getting the start we wanted. That was very disappointing.

"It is in the past now, and we have had two weeks testing, and we are positive we have solved a lot of the problems."