Contented Jenson Button predicts he will finish racing career with McLaren

Button is in the second year of a multi-million pound three-season contract with the Woking-based team, and at present is so happy he believes they will be the last he works with.

Approaching the start of his 12th season overall in Formula One, after spells with Williams, Renault, BAR, Honda and Brawn, the 31-year-old has no intention of hanging up his driving gloves yet.

But, as far as Button is concerned, given the enjoyment of working with a team he feels show him the ultimate respect, he can see no reason of driving for another team after McLaren. "I've a few years that I still want to race in Formula One," said Button. "I'm sure it will come to a point with me where I'll think 'Right, I don't want to do it any more, I want to do something else'. That point isn't yet, and I can't even imagine it happening yet. In fact, I can't imagine going somewhere else in Formula One after McLaren. I'm really happy here.

"When I was younger, at the start of my years in Formula One, I never thought I'd drive for McLaren.

"But now I'm here I feel very at home, strangely at home after one season. They've really welcomed me, and there's a good atmosphere."

After experiencing many lows during his career, such as the two wretched years with Renault and the problems he endured at Honda when their car ran towards the back of the grid, Button has been amazed by the honesty he has so far encountered within McLaren.

"When something goes wrong there is no finger-pointing. You talk about it," added Button.

"For instance, (technical director) Paddy (Lowe) will come up to me, and say 'I'm so sorry, this isn't what we want, and what we want you to see either. We're going to get back on track'.

"I'm not talking about this year as such, but there's such a great atmosphere here and they are such positive people.

"They really tell you what is happening. They don't keep you in the dark. They really involve you in everything they do.

"For me that is great. I love being involved in what is happening within a team.It's important to me that I'm not just doing the driving."

Following yesterday's two practice sessions ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, McLaren certainly appear as if they again have their act together following a wretched pre-season.

After ditching their radical exhaust system for a more conventional unit, McLaren conjured a shock at Melbourne's Albert Park as Button edged team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.132 seconds in setting the quickest lap of one minute 25.854secs.

The doom and gloom that previously pervaded McLaren was replaced by smiles as Button said: "For the first time this year nothing has gone wrong, which is great, and now we have to build on that.

"We have reliability, which is something we haven't had all winter, so to finally have a car in which we can do as many laps as we want is great.

"The feeling is so much better, the car feels a lot more complete, one that we can really make some progress with."

Right behind the McLarens were the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and the Red Bull duo of current world champion Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber.

Sounding a note of caution, Button added: "Although I hope we can improve further, we're not going to get carried away.

"I know Red Bull weren't using their rear wing when they set their quick laps, so they have another five or six tenths (of a second) available to them."

As for Hamilton, he now feels he is in the hunt for points rather than wondering whether he will simply finish the race.

"Our car feels like it is an improvement from testing, which is a positive for us," said Hamilton. "Whether we are as competitive as the others we will have to wait and see tomorrow, but I definitely feel we're in a position to get some points."