Button scared of his McLaren Honda

Since the new project began between McLaren and Honda, their two drivers have always remained positive.

Both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso have said all the right things in the media and have generally appeared enthusiastic about the challenge they face.

The two former Formula One World Champions clearly had bought into the project of Honda returning to Formula One and partnering McLaren, rekindling an iconic partnership of the 1990’s.

But the reality has been very different.

The car has performed badly, it has struggled with speed and reliability and has only really got past Manor Marussia on the grid.

In Spain, it looked like they were ready to take the next step to compete with the likes of Force India, but that hope didn’t last long.

Fernando Alonso was unfortunate to retire with a rear brake failure after his own visor strip had caused it to over heat.

Jenson Button struggled throughout the Grand Prix and the 2009 Formula One World Champion was not in the mood to concentrate on the positives after the race.

‘The first 30 laps were the scariest of my life, Every time I touched the throttle at any speed, the rear was just gone. It wasn’t normal. In low-speed corners it was just slow, but high speed, very scary.’ Button told the BBC.

The usually upbeat Button even questioned if McLaren could really break into the top ten at any stage this season to secure any world championship points.

‘After today I don’t expect points at all this year, but hopefully today was an off-day.

‘It did not feel right. The weekend has been reasonably good for us, I have been happy with the way the car’s been but in the race it was like flicking a switch.’