McLaren F1 team blames Hungarian GP tyre error on weather radar
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has blamed the Formula 1 team's radar software for the decision to keep Jenson Button on intermediate tyres in the Hungarian Grand Prix
Button was running fifth early in Sunday's race before taking on a fresh set of intermediates when the majority of the field switched to slicks during the race's first safety car period.
Though the Briton briefly took the lead from eventual winner Daniel Ricciardo when racing resumed, he fell back as his intermediate tyres overheated, and he dropped to the tail end of the field after being forced to change to slick tyres just two laps after the restart.
He eventually finished 10th, two places ahead of team-mate Kevin Magnussen who had stayed out on his old intermediates while others pitted and briefly held fourth.
"We got the belief it would rain, the radar clearly indicated it would," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.
"We didn't know something was wrong with the software.
"As long as we had this belief we saw the opportunity by doing what we did to get some key positions.
"It's true that with everybody on slicks we understood something was wrong and clearly we understand our call was wrong."
DRIVERS RUE WRONG CALL
Button criticised the team's calls post-race and admitted the tyre strategy was particularly disappointing as it followed a strong opening stint from the 2009 world champion.
"There were lots of wrong decisions in that race," he lamented.
"You win and you lose as a team. We thought it was going to rain but we were the only people that thought that.
"I feel like I did everything right, and in every track condition, which is why it's tough. The first stint was great but it went downhill from there."
Rookie team-mate Magnussen said that while it was frustrating, the ultimate blame lay with the drivers, not the team.
"It was my call to stay on inters," he insisted. "The team always rely on the driver in these situations and I made the wrong decision, it's not really down to the team.
"The team can only say what the radar says. They are not gods, they cannot control the weather.
"So I don't blame the team; these things happen and they're impossible to predict.
"From my perspective, starting from the pitlane we weren't going to [be able to] do much as overtaking is very difficult here.
"Taking that chance would have been amazing if it had worked but it just didn't."
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