F1 leader Button confident of return to winning

LONDON — Formula One points leader Jenson Button feels another hot streak coming on.

After winning six of the first seven races driving for Brawn GP, Button went on a three-race skid that he attributes to races being run in cooler weather. That is likely to change at the next grand prix, in Valencia, Spain, where Button is confident he’ll end his slump with a victory on Aug. 23.

“We have the money and resources to achieve great things, but everyone is moving so quickly we need to keep up,” Button said. “We’ve been through more difficult times so we can solve these problems for sure.”

After winning six of the first seven races driving for Brawn, the British driver failed to finish on the podium in his last three outings and his 26-point lead was cut to 18.5 with Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel closing the gap.

“We have just got to stay relaxed and make sure we get back to the front, which we will in Valencia,” said Button, who swapped four wheels for a bicycle, swimsuit and running shoes to take part in the London Triathlon in Hyde Park on Sunday. “We need to beat the Red Bulls. We can’t sit around and collect points, it is not enough.”

Button put the swing in Brawn’s fortunes down to the cooler temperatures during races in Britain, Germany and Hungary, where he finished sixth, fifth and seventh, respectively. He expects hotter conditions at the European GP in Spain, the 11th of 17 races this season.

“We can put it all down to the cooler climates. Even in Hungary the circuit was a lot cooler on Sunday than it was earlier in the week,” he said. “But it is down to us to make the car work in those cold conditions, that is what we need to work out and solve.

“If we don’t solve those issues we are going to be gobbled up by the Red Bulls because they seem to be working in hot and cold weather.”

Before this season, Button had won only one F1 race in nine years, the 2006 Hungarian GP.

“When you have the opportunity you have to take it,” he said. “This opportunity is the best I have had in Formula One by far and you have to take it. There might not be an opportunity again.”