Button under no illusions despite updates

The Japanese squad are introducing several updates in their car for this race, but Button has made it clear the new parts are just aimed at understanding their problems with the RA107 rather than at making it faster.

The updates were tested at Jerez last week and the British driver admitted they were good to help understand the issues with the car.

Button, however, says they haven't done the car any faster, and he is not expecting to be able to fight for points this weekend.

"It was a good test in terms of information," Button told reporters in Japan. "We tried new bargeboards, upper front wing. It didn't make the car go quicker but we already knew that - it was to understand what was happening with the car under braking.

"You get a better feel - but round Jerez it doesn't really work because all you need there is downforce. But it was useful for the aero guys - in a way it was a positive test, just not for this year.

"The last three races have nothing to do with this year really. We made some changes before to the suspension to help - but everyone's been making steps forward. And we haven't really made a big step forwards. In Monza, the car was working reasonably well.

"The last race was pretty tough - we weren't working at that intermediate aero level. We seem to work well on low downforce - medium downforce doesn't seem to work so well for us.

"I don't know what will happen here. The team are excited but to get a point here is going to be very tough," added Button, who has scored Honda's two points this year.

Despite his lack of optimism, Button admitted he is excited about driving at the new Fuji circuit for the first time this weekend.

"I walked round the track this morning. I like it - looking at it," he said. "Looking at a layout it didn't look that exciting but in the flesh it's very different - there's camber and gradient. Very interesting. For me, it feels quite similar to Turkey.

"The last section seems really slow and quite hilly and the last corner should be quite tough because it's off-cambered at the exit, it falls away. But I'm looking forward to getting out there - I love new circuits - and the layout of this is nicer than I expected.

"I think you can pass into the first corner and the other place, where it will be tougher, is down into the chicane. The slowest corners are the easiest and those are the only two opportunities I think.

"But a lot of the corners flow into each other which is nice. That's gonna make it tough - if you make a mistake in one corner you're going to carry it through the next two corners. And that's what I like - the last three corners.
If you walk down the pitlane, I think people are looking at mid to high downforce.

"It's definitely not low downforce even though there's a long straight - there are corners where you need grip under braking and traction."