• First Barcelona Test, Day Three

'I don't feel like I've had enough laps' - Button

Jenson Button only managed 71 laps between set-up changes on Thursday © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Jenson Button

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button is concerned he has not had enough time in the car during pre-season testing and that McLaren is falling behind with its programme.

Button completed just 71 laps on Thursday after set-up changes in the morning slowed his progress and then a more substantial mechanical set-up change over lunch took an hour out of his afternoon. He said it was all necessary work but is concerned the forecast rain on Friday at Barcelona will limit his time in the car further.

"It's going to be wet tomorrow so it's tricky," he said. "I don't feel like I've had enough laps in the car and I think it's the same for Checo [Sergio Perez] as well. We're doing a lot of work to really understand the car in terms of the aerodynamics. We were doing a lot of rake work in the morning and it always takes a little bit longer than you expect. You lose a lot of time doing that.

"It's important for us if it helps us throughout the year to understand this car and its direction but it does limit your testing. I really am looking forward to a good test next week in Barcelona because I don't feel we've been able to do enough to really understand the car and know where we are with the car."

Button's team-mate Sergio Perez said on Wednesday that extreme tyre degradation in the cold conditions had hampered his understanding of the car and Button agreed.

"It's also made difficult by the degradation of the tyres," he said. "We've had to throw a lot of new tyres at it and we don't have that many so it's difficult to do set-up work and comparisons. I think we have a good base. If we can extract the best from the car then it's a good car, it's just at the moment I don't think we're doing that."

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