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Perez will improve at McLaren - Button

Sergio Perez joins Jenson Button at McLaren as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton © Sutton Images

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• Sergio Perez

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McLaren will bring the best out of Sergio Perez and improve him as a driver, according to his new team-mate Jenson Button.

Perez joins McLaren after an impressive opening to 2012 with Sauber gave way to a run of six races without a point at the end of the year. Speaking after the unveiling of the new McLaren MP4-28, however, Button said he'd been impressed by what he'd seen from Perez last season and expected him to improve quickly at McLaren.

"The positives definitely for me were in a very difficult race in Malaysia," Button said. "Obviously he had a fantastic result finishing second and so close to the victory - I'm sure he still thinks about that moment right now - but also in Monza; I wasn't in the race at the end so I was able to watch Checo come through the field and chase down Lewis at the end so two really, really good races and races that he should be very proud of.

"But then, obviously you had the other race in Suzuka with Lewis, which was a great fight again but it obviously came off the other way. But that's racing; you have good races when you're talented and of course you're going to have bad races, there's always going to be a balance, but I think for the consistency through the year was very good in terms of the results and the results that should have come but didn't as well. So there's a lot more I'm sure we'll see from Checo in the next few years and improvements in working with McLaren - a team that's achieved so much - it really does bring the best out of you."

Perez himself believes he and the team have done "an incredible job" so far to help him settle in and get used to the new car in the simulator.

"For me it has been incredible, so exciting. I've never been so excited - even when I came in to Formula One or anything else - it's really something special that I'm looking forward to the new season. It has been a very busy couple of months and we have done an incredible job with my engineers working together in the simulator to understand the car and I think if we can do the same in the next couple of days of testing to prepare myself for the first race we're going to have an incredible preparation."

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