Seb Vettel on McLaren: I am not worried, to be honest

So it didn’t pour after all despite the hints and predictions, but yesterday’s Malaysian GP was still an exciting race with plenty of action. There were lots of overtaking moves (and counter moves), some pit stop mistakes and unusual moments, such as when Vitaly Petrov’s steering wheel dislodged after a WRC style jump. Even the press conference that we sat in was an entertaining affair – a PC with Jenson in it is rarely boring!

The British driver with the hottest WAG in the paddock (Ms Michibata wasn’t spotted at Sepang this year, sigh!) wanted to name the Renault of Nick Heidfeld in an answer, but was momentarily lost for words. He then turned to Nick on his left and asked “what should I be calling you?” causing the entire room to burst out laughing. The third placed stand in for Robert Kubica then sheepishly answered “Lotus Renault GP” to more laughter. If you’re wondering, Button was poking at the Lotus name battle that’s being heard now in British courts.

There were more jokes with the equally fun Vettel, but on to a more serious note, Button, who is well known for his smooth driving style that’s kind to tyres (in contrast with his teammate’s all action style) told us that the higher rate of tyre degradation of the Pirellis is a good thing, and that the Italian tyre company did a good job considering the development time. He can say so, because he did 19 laps with the prime tyres when everyone else didn’t go past 16.

It’s not an easy task. “The thing is it’s very difficult to understand what to do with the tyre. If you try and preserve it sometimes you make the situation worse as you are not carrying as much speed through a high-speed corner and then you get less downforce and you damage the tyre more so it is a very, very tricky situation to be in,” he said.

Of Vettel being the man to beat, Button said that “we can’t let the Red Bulls have it their own way for much longer” adding that they need to find some improvements, which is in the pipeline.

Red Bull’s Vettel is unbeatable at the moment, and has the confidence to match the on track performance, which is two poles and two wins in two races. While maintaining that RBR cannot stop pushing, and that the gap between them and McLaren is much closer here than in Australia, he declared: “But I am not worried, to be honest”.

Since he won pretty much unchallenged, we assumed that it was an easy time, but not so apparently. “When you come in for your first stop and you know it is drizzling around turns 5,6,7,8 then you just pray for the rain to stop as other people might stay out, one or two laps, and they get a free stop as it starts raining. It was tight. All in all I think it was a difficult race today,” the champ said.

Next up is the Chinese GP, which is this coming week. We’ll leave you with a treat – check out the pretty Petronas ladies after the jump!

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