Listening brief for Button
Jenson Button is planning to eavesdrop on new McLaren team-mate Sergio Perez's first day at work on Wednesday.
The start of pre-season proved to be a rollercoaster for Button as he sat on the sidelines for five hours due to a fuel-pump failure before dumbfounding his rivals with an impressive hot lap of the Circuito de Jerez to lead the way. Button described it as "a mixed day" and less than perfect given his lack of running, managing just 37 laps in the new MP4-28.
The 33-year-old now hands over the car to Perez, and said: "I personally would like to be in the car because of the limited day yesterday, but that's not how the programme is for us. It's obviously important for Checo to spend time in the car, and for me I'll be spending a lot of time listening in on the radio."
He added: "Even though he will be new in the car it's always interesting to hear a driver's point of view.
"He not only comes from another team, but also you need to get an understanding between team-mates, and he's going to explain what is happening with the car differently to how I would explain it. I need to get an understanding of what he means when he says something, and it's the other way around as well.
"So it's important for us to spend a lot of time together, and work with the engineers closely."
Button topped the timesheet with a lap of one minute 18.861secs, 0.8secs clear of Mark Webber in his Red Bull who described the lap as "strong", whilst Ferrari's Felipe Massa thought it "incredible".
But after a season plagued by gremlins last year that undermined McLaren's cause, it was hardly the ideal way to kick off proceedings for this campaign.
In particular, the issue was one that stopped Lewis Hamilton in his tracks whilst en route to victory in last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, much to team principal Martin Whitmarsh's frustration.
"I'd rather it didn't happen, but rather here on day one than later in the testing sequence or at a race," said Whitmarsh. "The irony is it was a brand new pump of a brand new design to resolve the problem we had in Abu Dhabi."
