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'I'm not going at 100% yet' - Button

ESPNF1 Staff
May 25, 2010 « Stewart backs Webber for title bid | »
Jenson Button is still settling in at McLaren © Sutton Images
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Jenson Button feels he has not yet unlocked the full potential of the McLaren this year, despite winning two races early in the season.

Button joined the team from Brawn over the winter and got his McLaren career off to a brilliant start by winning the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix. However, after two lacklustre performances in Spain and Monaco, he insists he is still getting used to the MP4-25.

"I was with the same team for seven years and they built the car around me, whereas now I'm finding my way slowly with a new one - as I'm sure Michael Schumacher is finding out," he told Eurosport. "I'm working on it, but there are a couple of tweaks still needed. Every race the team learns more about me and that helps. Things are not going badly at all as we've won two races, but I'm not going at 100% yet."

Looking forward to this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix, Button said that the McLaren's F-duct would give the car an advantage it did not have in Monaco.

"It [Istanbul Park] is faster and more flowing than Monaco obviously, which suits our car," he said. "Hopefully our F-duct will help us there. Red Bull are looking to adopt one but that is only the start of the job: it takes time to tune it. The more you run with it the more efficient it becomes, so we have a head start in that regard."

But despite McLaren bringing updates to the MP4-25 in time for Turkey, Button said he was not likely to close the gap to the front-running Red Bulls in just one race.

"[We are bringing] new aerodynamic parts, amendments to the wings. How much difference it will make I don't know; will it be enough to close the gap on Red Bull? They were so far ahead at Barcelona and also at Monaco that we can't bridge that gap with one update. We need to get closer to Red Bull in qualifying because our race pace is very good and if we start closer to them perhaps we can cause them problems."

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