Button ready for new season as McLaren launch MP4-26 in Berlin

Ex-world champion Jenson Button said yesterday the 2011 Formula One season promises to be the best ever, with five former champions set to battle it out for the world drivers’ championship.

Along with McLaren-Mercedes team-mate and 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button was at Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz yesterday for the launch of his team’s new MP4-26 car ahead of the start of the new season next month.

He flew into the German capital direct from a series of testing in Valencia, Spain.

Button was third fastest during Thursday’s session in last year’s MP4-25, a boost ahead of the new car’s launch.

The new season begins in five weeks with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 13 when Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, of Germany, will be looking to defend his world drivers’ championship title.

As well as Vettel and McLaren’s Button and Hamilton, there will be five former champions competing this season with seven-time winner Michael Schumacher, of Mercedes GP, and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso also fighting it out.

“I have had good years and bad years in the championship, but this season promises to be one of the best I have been involved in,” said Button.

“We will have five world champions on the grid, plus guys like (Red Bull’s) Mark Webber, who have gone close to winning in the past.

“It’s going to be close and it is going to be a good fight.”

Looking radically different from last year’s model, the MP4-26 features a range of aerodynamic features, designed to take advantage of new F1 rules.

Beneath the skin, the car houses a new electric hybrid system as the team looks to build on last season’s five Grand Prix victories.

McLaren finished second to Red Bull in the constructors’ competition while Hamilton was fourth and Button fifth in the drivers’ championship.

There are several new changes for all the drivers to get used to this season.

Following Bridgestone’s decision to withdraw their tyres at the end of last season after 13 years in Formula One, each team will use Pirelli tyres.

There are more buttons on the steering wheel, partly because of the new electronically adjustable rear-wing system to make it easier for drivers to overtake.

“There will be a lot of things to get used to: the amount of buttons, the tyres and the new wings, but it makes it all part of the fun,” said Button.

“We’ll all be used to the new changes once the new F1 season starts.”