Jenson Button found his Belgian Grand Prix compromised early in the race when his ERS pack developed a fault, although the Briton reckoned he would have struggled regardless of whether the pack was working or not.
The McLaren-Honda driver ended the race at Spa-Francorchamps down in fourteenth at the chequered flag, a lap behind the leaders, but felt embarrassed that he was just driving around at the back of the field.
“From the early laps, I had a problem with the deployment from the ERS pack,” said Button.
“I’d get deployment from it in different places now and again, but it was never really deploying and recovering as it should. It would cut immediately after Raidillon, for example, and then I’d have to rely on the ICE alone.
“That’s a lot of power to lose, and it meant I was driving the Kemmel Straight and the straight up to Blanchimont without any deployment at all. You can’t really do much in that situation.
“When you don’t have the electric motor, you’re losing 160, 180 horsepower. I was basically just driving round and keeping it on the black stuff.
“It’s not an issue I’ve had before, but the pace wasn’t good anyway, as you saw with Fernando.
“It was a tough day, embarrassing really, driving around at the back.”
