Jenson Button has admitted that "nothing has changed" with regards to McLaren's performances in the latter part of the season, despite the team making several updates to the car.
The Woking-based team struggled in qualifying at the Brazilian Grand Prix, with Button starting from the back of the grid and teammate Fernando Alonso not taking part after changing his engine.
However, the Briton has forecast that McLaren will continued to trail their rivals until the end of the season.
Button is quoted by F1i as saying: "Nothing has changed for us, we knew it was going to be a difficult season and the last few races have also been very difficult, so nothing has changed for me, or my views for next year.
"Obviously it would be nice to see, and I think we would all love, in this team, to have more reliability, but we're trying to push and make good gains through the year, because next year is the year that is more exciting for us.
"Every race, we're bringing new parts and, whether or not you see it in terms of lap time, it is all learning for next year so my views haven't changed since Japan, or just after Japan, when I decided that I wanted to stay next year. I wanted to stay because my view is we could have a good year next year."
McLaren are currently ninth in the constructors' championship.
