It was another day of pain for Jenson Button on Friday at Silverstone, with the British driver finishing eighteenth in first practice and seventeenth in the second, and had more car issues with his McLaren-Honda.
An O-ring problem during opening practice saw him miss most of the session, with the team then running a limited programme as they try and conserve the engine life of the Honda power unit.
Button is hopeful a raft of set-up changes will enable them to move up the order on Saturday but feels already it will be hard to have a good result this weekend in front of the British fans.
“We had very limited running today, not all of which was planned,” revealed Button. “We had to take a little longer than anticipated to change a few parts – but we made a little step with the set-up at the end of the afternoon. There’s still more pace to be found.
“For us, this weekend will be about understanding the package – every time we get out of the car, we make a step with the balance and the set-up. We’re not going to be looking for points on Sunday, but this can still be a useful weekend for us.
“Tonight, I think we’ll make some reasonably big set-up changes, and we should be better tomorrow. I’d love to have a good result in front of my home crowd, but that’s going to be difficult this year.”