Jenson Button admitted he let post-race emotions get the better of him when he said McLaren would fail to score a point in 2015 after what he called "the 30 scariest laps of my life" in Spain.
Button finished a lap down and ahead of only the two Manors in Spain, a race which saw him struggling with understeer and a lack of rear end. After the race Button went against the optimistic mood McLaren-Honda has displayed throughout its troublesome start to the year by saying the MP4-30 "wasn't normal".
However, speaking in the Monaco Grand Prix press conference on Wednesday, the 2009 world champion put his comments down to the heat of the moment and said the post-grand prix test in Barcelona eased his concerns.
"As you might have noticed I was very outspoken," Button said. "When emotions are running high you always exaggerate things. It was a tough race for me in Barcelona but it was good to have the test three days later to put everything right. And we did, the car felt much nicer to drive, much more consistent, especially on the long run pace, plus we had some parts to test for this season and specifically for here.
"It was a good test, I really ended the test happy and you can really see how far we have come since February, as a team but especially Honda and the Japanese side of the team. There was so much more confidence within and I'm really happy to complete the amount of laps we did but also to do a lot of very useful work. It was a really good day and hopefully we can carry that through to this weekend."
Honda said in the build-up to this weekend's race that the driveability of its power unit will be the difference between a good or bad result for McLaren in Monte Carlo.