Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Australian Grand Prix free practice

JENSON BUTTONMP4-28A-05FP1         1m28.440s (+1.229s)             19 laps                    9th

FP2         1m28.294s (+2.386s)             30 laps                    11th                                         Clearly, were not as quick as wed like to be, so our task now is to work hard to find out why our car is like it is, particularly in terms of ride and downforce.Our short runs werent particularly encouraging, to be honest. Were a couple of seconds off the pace, by the looks of things, and thats always going to be disappointing for a team as successful as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

But, in a situation like this one, all you can say is that theres a hell of a lot of work for us to doand that were well up for it. This team is incredibly good at turning things around, performance-wise, when thats whats required.So well now spend the next few hours working hard, studying our data, and Im confident that well be able to find some improvements for tomorrow.

Qualifying wont be easy, but Im pretty sure well be able to do a better job on Saturday than weve done today.SERGIO PEREZMP4-28A-06FP1         1m28.597s (+1.386s)             19 laps                    11thFP2         1m28.566s (+2.658s)             33 laps                    13th

Were struggling a bit, to be honest. We arent as competitive here as wed wanted to be. But were working on itand, as Jenson says, we should be able to find some improvements for tomorrow.

But, going forward, I know exactly how good Vodafone McLaren Mercedes technical guys areIve seen it from the outside before and Im seeing it from the inside nowand theres no doubt that they can close the gap to the cars ahead better and faster than anyone else.

We have an incredible team spirit too, which is fantastic to be a part of.

Lastly, its important to remember that the Australian Grand Prix is only the first race of the season, and that theres a long road ahead of us. We knew before we came here that we wouldnt be as quick as some of the other teams, but our task is still to score as many World Championship points as we can. The competition in Formula 1 is incredibly intense, and every World Championship point counts.MARTIN WHITMARSHTeam principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes"Well, today has been a very challenging day."Our car appears to be lacking in grip and consistency, and is suffering from significant understeer and poor ride."Try as we might, we didn't move forward in performance terms during the course of the day, either."But, having said that, we've collected a lot of data, and we'll be working extremely hard this evening and tonight in an effort to utilise that data in order to do whatever we can to effect improvements."Moreover, you don't win World Championships in the first Grand Prix of the year; you win World Championships by managing the progressive development of your car from its baseline in Australia in March all the way through its development journey towards its final destination: Brazil in November."As I said a couple of weeks ago, our car is complex. Perhaps we haven't yet worked out how best to harness its potential, but we believe that potential is there."