Jenson Button says his McLaren MP4-31 was “undriveable” during the early wet conditions at the 2016 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
The British driver eventually finished in ninth place, feeling the right strategy calls were made, but he admitted his car was ”scary” in the opening part of the race before the track dried out.
“My car felt almost undriveable during the wet opening laps – we were struggling to get heat into the rear tyres, and were locking the rear wheels whenever we hit the brakes, which was a bit scary,” he explained.
“I boxed for inters at probably the right time – that first-call was the trickier one. I feel I’m pretty good at making those tyre calls, but, on such a short lap, and when everybody else follows suit, it didn’t make too much difference.
“Then I got stuck behind Pascal’s [Wehrlein] Manor, which I couldn’t overtake. I think we made the right calls in terms of strategy, but lost out a little with the attendant traffic – which I couldn’t help – but the team made some good calls nonetheless.
“We wouldn’t have scored this many points if it’d been dry, so it’s good to get a decent haul today.”
Team-mate Fernando Alonso finished in fifth place: “In terms of driving and concentration, today’s was an extremely tough race.
“We started behind the safety car – with almost zero visibility – then switched to inters; but nobody had done any laps on those tyres before the race, so it was unknown territory for everyone.
“Once we’d switched to dry-weather tyres, there was still only a very narrow dry line on the track, so if you went just half a centimetre off that line, you’d crash.
“Nonetheless, we got a good result – both cars in the points ought to make us reasonably happy. I think we’re progressing well: the results make it quite obvious what we’re achieving, so we’re heading in the right direction.
“We’re still not where we want to be – right at the front, fighting for wins and podiums – but I’m happy about how things are going.”
