Why has Button been so poor?

That was the question asked on the VitalF1.com Forum following the Spanish Grand Prix.

The same question has been asked at every race since and the 2009 Formula One World Champion didn't appear to have any answers as to why he was performing so below par.

His McLaren team didn't appear to have many answers either and with Lewis Hamilton driving an identical car to victory in Canada, it appeared to leave everyone a little puzzled.

But now McLaren believe they may have found the answer, but will not be sure until the car hits the track for the European Grand Prix in Valencia this weekend.

'I think Canada was very interesting because fundamentally we run the same car for both drivers and they both have the same parts available. Although we allow them to adapt the set-up to their driving style, clearly we had something fundamentally different in terms of the tyre performance and car performance,' McLaren's operations director Simon Roberts told Autosport Magazine.

After analysing all the race data for the Canadian Grand Prix back at the factory, the team have come to the conclusion that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the set-up if Jenson Button's car in comparison to Lewis Hamilton's, but the team believe they have identified some subtle differences which could help to improve Button's performances going forward.

'You've seen already this year how teams can get right in the sweet spot of the tyres or miss it, and I don't think we were far off. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with his set-up, but on the day it delivered a very different level of performance. So we think we're nearer to understanding it all.

'Whether we've got it cracked yet, only time will tell. It's a painful but interesting learning exercise for us.'

It would appear that not many of the readers of Vital F1 believe that Button can turn it around this weekend, with only 6% backing him to win the race on our front page poll.