Button determined to rediscover form

Jenson Button believes his worst run of form with McLaren could yet provide a springboard to world title glory this season.

After admitting to being “very lost and confused” after another poor performance and result in the Canadian Grand Prix 12 days ago, Button is determined to haul himself out of the mire.

Trailing McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 43 points in the drivers’ standings after collecting a paltry two in the last four races, the hope is a corner can be turned in Sunday’s European Grand Prix.

Stringent analysis of reams of data have resulted in a number of set-up changes for the race around the Valencia Street Circuit.

Button would like to feel that taking one step backward of late will now result in him striding two or more forward and so back into the championship picture.

The only downside is that practice today did not go according to plan for either Button or Hamilton, with the duo finishing 12th and 14th, just under a second behind Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

Despite that, Button said: “I’m not letting what’s happened of late play on my mind. I probably would have let it five or six years ago, but not now.

“I’m at the point in my career where I’m with a great team, I’ve won the world championship, won many races, and you realise it can’t all be good. You have to go through difficult times.

“As long as you learn in those difficult times and you improve yourself, which I think you can, then I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

“What has happened has hurt my championship, of course, but maybe that’s not a bad thing either. Maybe I’ll have a massive comeback. Who knows?

“One thing is for certain, I’m not going into this race feeling negative. I’m confident in myself, in the car and my chances of fighting for the title.”

Button is even confident of becoming the first driver to win two races this season following an F1 record where the opening seven grands prix have been won by different drivers.

Again Button feels an anomaly, this time of what occurred in Canada where he was so far off the pace of race winner Hamilton, will be of benefit.

“I’m 100% confident of being a two-time winner,” added Button.

“Obviously seven people winning grands prix this year is a shock to everyone, and it’s possible for many people to win on Sunday.

“We’ve proven, as many teams have proven, we don’t understand why we are quick at one race and not at another, so I’ve as good a chance as anyone of winning here.

“Probably having the last race helped us as a team because we had one car that was extremely quick and Lewis did a great job, but we also had one driver and one car that wasn’t quick.

“When you look at the difference in lap time, there was a lot of useful information to go through.

“It is the only way to learn in F1 at the moment, with the tyres and situation we have, so hopefully it will help us as a team to move forward.

“The weird thing is I’ve scored in three races, and one of those I only scored two points, and I’ve not scored in four, yet I’m only 43 points behind the leader.

“It’s the strangest championship I’ve ever known, yet there is still a lot that is possible.”

Button has conceded for the first time a change in directional set-up following the Bahrain Grand Prix initially put him on the back foot from which he is still trying to recover.

As for championship leader Hamilton, who is two points clear of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and three ahead of Vettel, the Pirelli tyres today proved his undoing.

Hamilton said: “I didn’t have a very good day, a bit of a struggle. I tried a couple of different things with my tyres and they didn’t work.

“But I feel quite confident I can make some changes to get me back in a good position tomorrow.”

It was left to Paul di Resta to finish as the lead Briton in his Force India, the Scot 0.366secs adrift in sixth, with team-mate Nico Hulkenberg second to Vettel, 0.131secs down.