It's not over yet - McLaren
2010-10-12 07:11
Tokyo - Jenson Button and McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton have refused to abandon hope despite Red Bull dealing a crushing blow to their F1 title hopes in Japan.
In post-race interviews with Reuters, both champions vowed to fight to the bitter end and expressed confidence in their team's ability to power past their rivals in the last three races of the season.
If the body language hinted at hidden thoughts, and the occasionally terse and tetchy replies masked a deep frustration and desire to be somewhere else, both remained determinedly on-message.
Asked whether the championship was slipping away, Hamilton - now 28 points behind Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber with three races remaining - nodded: "Uh uh, yep," he replied.
"But there's 75 points available. Those guys can not finish the next three races and we could win the next three races. Anything is possible," he added. "We've just got to finish, we've clearly got pace.
"It's been the hardest weekend this year ... I lost the world championship in two weekends (in 2007) but I haven't lost it yet so it's definitely not the worst."
The 25-year-old, who finished fifth at Suzuka on Sunday after a list of problems as long as the main straight including a failing gearbox and persistent ear infection, said the car just needed to be faster.
"I'm going to go back and push my team like they've never been pushed before and I'll push myself like I've never pushed myself before," he declared.
Squeeze more
Asked whether that would really work, with the team already flat out and throwing everything at the last three races, Hamilton paused for a moment.
"I think the fact that you go back is motivating. The fact that you are kicking is motivating," he said.
"If I was just to leave it right now, not go and speak to the guys and just see how it is at the next race, that's not motivating.
"Engineers are the smartest people in the world but every now and then ... someone from outside can notice something that maybe they haven't.
"I've no doubts they are doing a great job. The question is how much do you want it (the title)? I know they want it and they have already been squeezed as hard as they could possibly be. But you can always squeeze more."
Button, the reigning world champion, was fourth at Suzuka after a tyre gamble failed to pay off. He remained fifth overall in the standings, a hefty 31 points off the lead.
"It's definitely not over," he said.
"If you win three races and Webber finishes third, he beats you by a point or something. But you've also got (Red Bull's Sebastian) Vettel and (Ferrari's Fernando) Alonso (to take points off him).
"So it's never over until there aren't enough points to win the championship.
"We might as well go home right now if we are going to be negative about it," added Button. "We're here to fight. Starting the season with a car that's not as quick as another car, you don't give up straight away.
"You fight until the end and that's exactly what we're going to do.
"If I win the championship it would be amazing," he continued. "If I don't, I don't and we'll fight next year. There's nothing to get down about."
McLaren brought new parts to Japan but their weekend was compromised when Hamilton crashed heavily on Friday and went into qualifying with only a handful of laps under his belt and a five-place grid penalty after an unscheduled gearbox change.
"There were lots of parts we put on the car here that worked well but there was one part that didn't work quite as expected and it will work," said Button.
"It's just a matter of time and hopefully we'll have that for Korea working correctly and that should give us a good chunk (of time gained), hopefully enough of a chunk to really challenge the Red Bulls.
"We need more downforce, more power. The car needs to work better mechanically."
