Button’s fourth place in the Brazilian Grand Prix – the team’s best result – failed to disguise another desperately disappointing year. Their only success was to beat Force India to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship, a little matter of 474 points behind the champions, Red Bull, and almost 200 points behind fourth-placed Lotus. Button said his result at Interlagos had “put a smile on everyone’s face” and added: “The management is good here. They’ve had a tough time of it this year and everybody is quoting figures. It’s always going to be the case when you have a difficult year. You’re going to look for someone to blame but I think they’ve come through it very well and I think they’re strong and going to do a good job next year.” Button, who became the most experienced British F1 driver on Sunday with 247 starts, denied McLaren are about to “do a Williams” and replicate the decline of the leading British team of the 1980s, who finished ninth in the championship, last among the midfield teams. “We have the resources that Williams don’t have.
Money, in a way, is king in a sport like Formula One. The same in football, in a way. But it still needs to be managed correctly and positioned in the right place.” After a miserable qualifying session on Saturday, McLaren appeared certain to miss out on fourth place in a season for the first time since their debut year of 1966, and a dejected Button said he was looking forward to the last lap of the race in Brazil. The mood was more upbeat in the McLaren motorhome after the race, in which the departing Sergio Pérez finished sixth, one of his best performances for the team. Button, who says he will have a new data engineer next year, believes there could be more fresh faces in a team who have announced the signing of the driver Kevin Magnussen – whom they had tried, in vain, to line up with another team to further his experience – as well as Red Bull’s head of aero, Peter Prodromou, an important figure.
