• British Grand Prix

Button prepared for 'big hit'

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton expect all of the top teams to lose downforce this weekend © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• British Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
• |
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button thinks the off-throttle blown diffuser ban will be a "reasonably big hit" for all of the front-running teams at this weekend's British Grand Prix.

The FIA has clarified a rule which now means that teams can't use the engine to blow exhaust gases through the diffuser when off-throttle. Red Bull were believed to have mastered the practice, but Button said he thought all of the top teams would be affected because they have been developing their cars with the exhaust blown diffuser in mind.

"I think it's quite a bit that the top teams will lose," Button said. "We've had it for a while now and you start designing the car around the systems that you have in place. It's going to be a reasonably big hit and you'll feel it everywhere; high and low speed. On power not so much but it's more under braking. I think the biggest problem will be that braking for the corners the feeling of the car will be changing a lot."

Button's McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton agreed that the practice improved performance, but said it was still unknown as to how other engines would be affected and that he hoped McLaren's upgrades would help to cover any performance losses.

"I think they've made a reasonable difference," Hamilton said. "When you take away the engine modes that we were using before it will be different for the likes of Ferrari and for the Renault engines particularly, because I think they use it slightly differently to us. Whether or not they will be hampered more than us we don't know, but I think the team has done a great job with trying to understand and recover elsewhere through setup and other bits such as updates we have coming. I really, really hope that we are at least as good as them if not better. In terms of driving style and all that we've had a chance to go in the simulator again to do a good job there."

Laurence Edmondson is a deputy editor on ESPNF1

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