Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button admit that the Italian Grand Prix this weekend will be “tough” on the McLaren team.
McLaren failed to make any notable strides forward at Spa following the summer break after optimism was pinned by Honda on their significantly updated power unit.
Alonso came home in 13th whilst team-mate Jenson Button limped home behind Alonso with another power unit-related problem and the Spaniard accepts that he is highly unlikely to stand on the top step for a third time in Monza.
“I have won at Monza twice in my career – once with McLaren in 2007 – and both times were incredibly special. For this race, we have to manage our own expectations” Alonso said.
“It will be tough, but we’ll still push hard as usual, learn as much as we can about our package, and work on our low-downforce configuration to try and get as much as we can out of the weekend.”
Button echoed Alonso’s thoughts and added that the issues encountered during last race shouldn’t occur again at Monza.
“Spa was a very tough race for the team, and especially so on my side of the garage due to the deployment issues I had on the straights,” the 34-year-old said
“We’re working hard on this and we’re optimistic that there won’t be a repeat in Monza, as it really hindered any chance I had of keeping up with the rest of the pack”
“That said, Monza’s high speeds will prove very challenging for us, but we’ll give it our all and stay focused as ever.”
Even with the issues in the last race, Button drew on some positives from the car’s performance at Spa and is hoping to carry them into this weekend.
“The key for us will be getting the maximum from the car on Saturday, to give ourselves a fighting chance of a good battle on Sunday afternoon,” added the 34-year-old
“Despite the issues, the car was well balanced in Spa and felt good to drive, particularly in qualifying, so we’ll aim to make the most of that in Monza, too, before we head to the flyaways where there’ll be circuits that’ll suit our car’s strengths much better.”
