McLaren will move on from team-mate scrap

Jenson Button believes that the McLaren team will now move on following the inter-team battle on the track in Bahrain.

The 2013 Formula One World Championship certainly appears to so-far be the battle of the team-mates, from the controversial team-orders coming from both Red Bull and Mercedes in Malaysia, to team-mates coming into contact with each other with Force India and McLaren almost coming unstuck in Bahrain.

New McLaren team-mates Jenson Button and Sergio Perez had an excellent tussle during the last race, with the young Mexican appearing to be much faster than his 2009 Formula One World Championship winning team-mate.

The two raced side-by-side for a couple of laps, something that appeared to agitate Button during the Grand Prix.

After the race Button and Perez were called for a team briefing with McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh and sporting director Sam Michael and Button now believes that the drivers are in a much clearer position than before.

‘After the race it was important to sit down with the team and Checo and for us all to talk about the race, get it out and move on, I think we’re very lucky that we were allowed to race. There are a lot of teams where team-mates aren’t allowed to race. But we’d better respect that decision and not take advantage of it. Button told Autosport Magazine.

‘That’s something that we all understand now. Hopefully we can be racing in Barcelona: fighting cleanly and hopefully for the win, not for sixth or seventh.’

During the tussle, the Formula One world feed broadcasted Jenson Button’s radio comment to the team after Perez had clipped Button from behind with his front wing.

Button radioed his team and told them to ‘calm him down’, a comment that Button was upset was broadcasted live and he moved to play the incident down.

‘The problem with the radio is that my message is not meant for the masses, it’s meant for the team, In a way it’s a pity that TV companies just choose the messages they want, because they can come across in the wrong way.

‘I was obviously angry, but the anger was supposed to be kept within the team, because I am radioing the team, I’m not radioing TV companies.’