Jenson Button says luck is a factor in wet tyre management

McLaren has suffered problems with retaining tyre temperature at times this year, with Button being affected particularly badly.

Several other drivers were caught out by issues with the wet and intermediate tyres in qualifying at Hockenheim, and Button feels that there is only so much the teams can do to master those issues.

"Last year we were great with getting tyre temperature and I think sometimes you do luck into it," said the 2009 world champion. "If you look at the Ferraris last year they were nowhere in conditions where you had low temperature.

"I don't think Ferrari designed a car for that, it just happened with the way they have designed the geometry of the car this year."

Button added that there is no way to drive around the problem of a lack of tyre temperature in wet conditions.

"I've driven F1 cars for 12 or 13 years and I know what it is like to drive in the wet," he said. "I have never felt it like this, but I have had temperature issues for most of the year. In the wet we are nowhere.

"When you can't get the tyres working, you can't stand on the brakes because you lock up, and you are driving round so slow.

"The tyre isn't working, it's just skating and you spend the whole time so fearful that it is just going to send you off into the boonies."

Button praised the efforts of McLaren after the updates it brought to Germany gave the MP4-27 a significant performance boost in dry conditions, but he said it has made little difference to the car's difficulties in wet conditions.

"We have found a lot of time in the dry with the new things we have brought here," he said. "But in the wet we still have the same issues of tyre temperature.

"We should be happy with the improvements we have made, but as soon as it started raining we knew we would struggle."