Button was running fifth and suspects he could have outfoxed Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg by the finish had he made a three-stop strategy work.
The Mercedes ultimately pitted four times and cruised home under team orders nursing tyre wear and fuel shortages.
Button lost nearly two minutes when he was released early from his third pitstop and had to be dragged back for a wheel to be fitted correctly. He was running 12th when he eventually retired with a severe vibration.
“It’s easy to say I could have been on the podium,” said Button. “I’m sure people will disagree with me, but I think we had a chance to fight with Mercedes.
“We had one less pitstop to do. I don’t know what might have happened, but at worst it would’ve been fifth and we would’ve fought against Mercedes.”
The 2009 world champion also believes McLaren made substantial progress in Malaysia, having only finished ninth in Australia seven days earlier.
“It’s a good improvement on the last race,” Button said. “Only a week ago we never would’ve thought we’d be racing for fifth.
“There are positives, but it’s always very tough when you have issues like this.
“It’s a lot of points to throw away, but we are improving and I can see we can be even more competitive in China.”
Team-mate Sergio Perez managed ninth despite a last-minute fourth tyre stop.
“I think we managed to get the best out of the car,” he said.
“Eighth was possible. We stopped very late as the tyres gave up.”
Yvan Muller claimed a lights to flag victory in an eventful and safety car-interrupted World Touring Car Championship opener at Monza.
The Signatech squad began its relationship with Alpine by topping the times in the official European Le Mans Series test at Paul Ricard this week.
AJ Allmendinger, Tristan Vautier and Carlos Munoz are scheduled to test at Texas Motor Speedway tomorrow as a precursor to next month’s Indy 500 Rookie Orientation Program at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I want to make sure they are set into a rhythm and they’re aware of what’s going on around them.
Red Bull has no choice but to lay down the law to Sebastian Vettel over his team orders defiance at the Malaysian Grand Prix, say rival team bosses.
“It is very easy for me to get pious that we don’t do it, and condemn others – but I don’t want to do that,” he said.
Ferrari says that Fernando Alonso is staying positive about his championship hopes following his retirement from the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that Lewis Hamilton pleaded with him last year to engineer a move to Red Bull.