F1: Malaysia Is Very Different, Says Button

Formula 1

F1: Malaysia Is Very Different, Says Button

Jenson Button hopes to make it back-to-back wins to open the 2012 season...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted March 22, 2012 Sepang (MAS)

Jenson Button is the World Championship leader. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

As in 2009, Jenson Button comes to Malaysia as the World Championship leader after his victory in Australia, but the Brit stressed Thursday that the tracks are very different so it’s not easy to make any predictions.

“It’s so different to last weekend, it’s very fast and flowing, very smooth compared to a street circuit and the tires,” said Button. “It’s always more difficult for the tires around here. But obviously we have the hard and the medium compound and they’re both pretty hard compounds, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

“I think it’s just the temperature and the humidity that will be the biggest issue for them. And it’s one of those places where you really don’t know what the weather’s going to do. When I previously won here, it was cut short, the race, because of a red flag. That’s the thing here: Normally it doesn’t just rain, it chucks it down. So, if it does rain this weekend, we hope we can continue racing because it’s a great circuit.”

Button showed a good understanding of the 2012 tires in Melbourne, particularly in his ability to get them up to working temperature, although he played down any advantage.

“I think we all try to do the best job we can with the tires but personally I don’t feel the tires were a big issue for anyone in Melbourne," the McLaren driver said. "They seemed to be very consistent and we didn’t have degradation like we do at other circuits, like here, so I feel that I had a good balance with the car. I had a lot of confidence in the car and, yeah, I think the consistency was pretty good throughout the race.

“Obviously, we had the scare with the safety car for us – it’s always tough when you’re leading by 10 or eleven seconds, to suddenly find a car right up behind you again. But I think we made good use of the safety car in the end and were able to come home and get a very important victory for the whole team.”

Button said he’d had a relaxing few days since his Australia win.

“I think we’re pretty focused on this weekend," the 2009 World Champion said. "It was pretty important to relax after the race because it was a great victory for us. I had a nice evening with friends and family, as we all know that’s the best way to celebrate a great event.

“And then Monday/Tuesday, I spent a couple of days in Melbourne just relaxing and then arrived here yesterday. It’s actually been quite a nice few days. Got here yesterday and thought it was quite important to get used to the humidity, because it’s quite different to Melbourne. Yeah, it’s been nice; it always is after winning a Grand Prix and you’re always very excited about the next Grand Prix and obviously your aim is to do exactly the same again.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.