Jenson Button post-race Q&A
Jenson Button kicked off his 2004 campaign with sixth place and three points in Melbourne. There was a little frustration involved, however, as he started fourth and despite jumping Juan Pablo Montoya at the start he lost out to Fernando Alonso and eventually both Williams drivers as well. Nevertheless with no cars retiring ahead fourth in the Michelin class was not a bad result, bearing in mind that any switch of tyre manufacturer involves a steep learning curve. Clearly the BAR package has some potential. Adam Cooper tracked Jenson down after the race.
"It's great to be in the points and finish sixth in the first Grand Prix. I've never scored here before, so it's not too bad."
"The first one got by us in the pit stops when we had a problem with one of the rear wheels which cost me some time. Ralf jumped me there and Juan was able to get past on the circuit. We're reasonably happy but we've just got to work on our set-up. It's always difficult with a new car and also the new tyres. A little bit more work over the next week and hopefully we can be a little bit stronger. We've never really done a complete race distance with these tyres. Now we know what they're doing in the race, and we know we've got a few problems, but I'm sure we can solve them for the next race in two weeks' time."
"It was OK. I struggled a little bit, because it's very slippery out there, and the only people who seemed to be very quick were the Renaults. Compared to us they seem to have an advantage. It was quite strange when it's a manual start. I was actually shocked a little bit by that, because I didn't expect them to be so quick."
"It's a pain, isn't it! It's a real pain... We thought we did a good race to finish sixth. The Williams seem to be very strong, and the Ferraris and the Renaults. It's tough, but that's the competition."
"It was nothing major. I just tried to stay on the outside, but he forced me off. That's what happens."
"It's not an issue really. I was on the outside, so he was on the inside, and that's the way it is."
"Hopefully it's going to be an improvement, and I think it will be. It's the first time we've raced on these tyres, and it's a pretty good performance to have both cars finish. But there are some things we need to sort out, really."
"We have three days next week. It's nice to do a race distance properly at race pace. We're not quite on the pace of the top three teams, but now we've got time to work, and look at the data."
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