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Jenson Button raged at claims he is set for the axe at the end of the season as McLaren’s frustration boiled over in Montreal.

The 35-year-old’s teammate Fernando Alonso had already ranted on the team radio the former F1 superpower were “looking like amateurs”.

The car was so woeful that when engineers called on the two champions to perform fuel-saving in mid-race Alonso flat out refused.

The Honda engine showed neither speed, economy nor reliability as both power plants broke down and failed to make the finish.

In the post-race analysis Button’s fury switched to reports McLaren are already considering replacing him.

“Not true,” he told one journalist.

(Image: Mark Thompson)

Pushed on whether he knew he was definitely at McLaren for 2016, Button said: “I don’t know. I have not even thought about. And the team have not even thought about it either.”

The red-faced Japanese giant saw their champion racer, responsible four years ago for the greatest win this track has ever seen, lapped by winner Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso was last on the results sheet and Button one place above him in what was surely the worst performance by the Woking operation in the last 30 years.

While Button had good cause to be frustrated at speculation over his future being upbeat about Montreal was trying to defend the indefensible.

“I want to be at the front. I don’t want to be lapped on lap 20,” he added.

“But there are only a couple of guys out in front, and only one of those seems to be winning.

“It is not an easy position to be in, but when I came into Formula One, I did not expect to win my first Grand Prix.

(Image: Clive Mason)

“These things take time for you as an individual to develop and the same thing for a team.

“McLaren has a lot of experience in Formula One and Honda understand that and are really listening to McLaren in terms of helping them to progress and you will see the difference in every race we go to each year.

“We won’t get a podium this year.

“Next year will be a lot more exciting than 2015 but you cannot just jump to 2016, you have to do the work, otherwise you don’t deserve the good results.

“You have to work for it.”

“Some people go ‘right, this is the issue, it’s obviously frustrating being out there, but let’s solve this issue’.”

Button defended his endlessly optimistic outlook.

“Throwing a brick or pointing a finger at someone does not help the situation or make it go away,” he said.

“Pointing a figure at a manufacturer does not help anyone at all.

“You also don’t want to mollycoddle them. You have to say what needs to be improved and you work towards it, you just don’t want to do it in public. That is not going to help whatsoever.”

“When you are on the inside you see the improvements.

(Image: Charles Coates)

“For the next race we have a new aero package, a lot of different things on the car.

“There is a new engine package, a lot of things coming to Austria and then another step at Silverstone.

“Of course we have issues in terms of reliability at the moment and a few other things but we still have to do a lot of work on the car.

“If we had the most powerful engine out there we still wouldn't win any races right now because the car still has lots of areas where we need to improve.

“We know all these things and we are working on it. That is why the new packages are coming in the next races.

“The next race there are a lot of changes coming to the car. It will be very different apart from the colour scheme.”