Button brimming with confidence

Jenson Button touched down in Australia on Monday with a smile on his face knowing he has a car to fight for this season's Formula One world title.

For Button, team-mate Lewis Hamilton and all within McLaren, there is a general mood of optimism after a relatively successful pre-season. Although the MP4-27 did not top the timesheet once on any of the 12 days spread across Jerez and Barcelona, anybody with an eye for detail could tell McLaren are ready for a championship push.

"Arriving in Melbourne I'm a lot happier than I was last year," said Button. "We've had a good winter in terms of reliability most of the time, except for my final day when the car had a hydraulics issue. But I feel we have made good progress with the car, and there's nothing I'm afraid of with its balance. It listens to changes which is really important."

He added: "So I'm very happy with the direction we've taken and with the package we have on the car, very happy, and I'm happy with what we've achieved so far.

"As long as we find a good set-up with the new package we should be looking pretty good for the first race.

"So it's been a really good winter. The whole team will say the same in terms of what's been happening with the car."

Button also claims to have his head "definitely in the right place", so with the correct mental approach and with the car beneath him, half the battle has already been won ahead of the first shots being fired in anger this weekend.

"I feel in a very good place with the team, that I've a great bunch of engineers and mechanics around me," said Button.

"There's nothing I would look at and say 'that's an area where we are weak' or 'maybe that could be better'. It's all gone right at the moment."