Jenson Button is refusing to think of a first podium in front of a home Silverstone crowd despite his strong showing at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Button turned in a memorable weekend in Spielberg, qualifying third in a session impacted by changeable weather before finishing sixth in the grand prix. The British driver admitted after the race it was a much better result than McLaren expected.
Though he wants to end his Silverstone drought at the 17th attempt, Button is keeping his expectations realistic.
"Finishing on the podium at the British Grand Prix is top of my 'to do' list in F1," Button said. "I've achieved pretty much everything else that I set out to do in F1, but I've never stood on the podium at Silverstone. I really want to do that and it would feel like a victory if I were to achieve it.
"Of course, the result in Austria last week really motivates everybody, and it raises everyone's expectations, too. It would be lovely to be able to claim that a podium this year might finally be possible, but, being realistic, that won't be possible this time.
"But I head to Silverstone feeling hugely encouraged by our progress, and just what we can achieve as a team when the variables are thrown into the air and all the teams are left to somewhat improvise: we can do great things."
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier is also keeping his feet on the ground, pointing out that Button's teammate Fernando Alonso suffered a troublesome weekend which should refocus the team going to Silverstone.
"This year we do battle with a much improved MP4-31," Boullier said. "Jenson's result in Austria showed that, when everything comes together, we can perform operationally at a high standard; but, equally, the issues that affected Fernando on both Saturday and Sunday show that we still need to raise our game on every front.
"It's important to remember that we were able to punch above our weight in Austria, but, with so many McLaren-Honda fans in the crowd this weekend, we'll be doing our best to pull another strong result out of the bag."