McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso expect McLaren's struggles to continue at the Italian Grand Prix before it can unleash its "A-game" in Singapore.
McLaren arrived in Spa with an upgraded Honda power unit, but the expected step forward failed to materialise. Button described his Belgian Grand Prix as "embarrassing", labouring to 14th behind team-mate Alonso with ERS issues, and does not think McLaren's fortunes will improve at a circuit with similar high-speed characteristics to Spa.
""Hopefully I won't have that [ERS] problem in Monza, but it's going to be a very tough race in Monza," Button said. "The whole package, on a circuit like Spa, is a long way off. Fernando was 36 seconds behind the next car and everything was running smoothly - that just shows where we are right now. Monza will be the same, but hopefully reliability wise we'll be better. Then we get to Singapore, which is our A-game if you like - hopefully that's going to be a good one."
Alonso thinks the lack of apparent progress from Honda's upgraded power unit was misleading and says McLaren's current struggles highlight the nature of modern F1 with limited testing.
"There are minor steps these days in F1. When you add some extra horsepower you feel a bit quicker, but when you are a long way back it is always not enough. We will put things right and hopefully be more competitive, but it is a slow process, unfortunately, and painful, but we are all together going through this time."