F1: Button thinks McLaren now closer to pace

McLaren-Honda will be quicker during the second event of the Formula 1 season in Malaysia than it was in the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, according to Jenson Button.

While Button does not expect McLaren to move ahead of any of the teams it trailed in Melbourne, he is confident that improvements to the operation of the engine and aerodynamic tweaks will allow it to be more competitive.

"If you look at it from afar, you probably won't see any changes but if you look at the laptimes compared to other people, I think you will see a change," said Button. "The problem is that we are so far behind that you won't see a position change.

"There will be a good chunk in terms of performance and it comes from the power unit and in terms of cooling but also in terms of aerodynamics as we have got some new parts on the car, which will help. You could get the snowball effect where suddenly you find more time than you expect, because things start working and fall into place – which is exactly what I'm hoping happens.'

Button added that he expects further steps to be made for April's Chinese and Bahrain GPs, which could allow McLaren to race with the back of the midfield. He also stressed that Honda will take a less conservative approach to this weekend after banking a race finish – its first full grand prix distance – in Australia. This is because it has gathered significant data from that race and the chance to run in more consistent and representative temperatures.

"They don't want to be conservative," said Button. "We don't want to just drive around to finish.

"The aim in Australia was to finish and that was to get as much information as possible because the longest run prior to that was 12 laps. It was very important for us to get stable temperatures for the first time with the power unit and a lot of useful information came from that race.

"Everyone said if they struggled in Melbourne they are going to struggle here and of course it's more difficult, but before Melbourne we didn't have stabilized temperatures. Now we have them, we can work on which direction we need to go with cooling for this race."

Originally on Autosport.com