Button in no doubt McLaren will be competitive at Silverstone despite Red Bull's Valencia showing
Jenson Button has no doubts that McLaren will be competitive at Silverstone this weekend despite fears that Red Bull's prodigious pace in the European Grand Prix
Button expects the fast track configuration to play to the strengths of the McLaren MP4-27 and believes the developments Red Bull ran two weeks ago will not be so advantageous in the high-speed corners.
"At the last race, everyone was quite excited about how quick the Red Bull was," said Button. "Their pace was phenomenal.
"They had a big aerodynamic package and it worked in the low-speed corners. That's an area where it's very difficult to get a car working aerodynamically because we are so limited with blowing the rear diffuser.
"It is an area where we are lacking at the moment, but that shouldn't matter for us because it's a high-speed circuit and it's high-speed where the updates work for us."
While McLaren is confident about the upgrades for the British Grand Prix, Button insists that he does not expect to see a massive step forward.
Sporting director Sam Michael has confirmed that the update package is worth more than a tenth of a second, but Button is confident of the car's pace even in its pre-Silverstone configuration.
"We're seeing a step, but I don't think we're going to see a massive step," he said. "With the regulations being so limited aerodynamically, it's difficult to find a massive step like you could last year.
"But we do have a few bits aerodynamically and mechanically. There is some stuff which is very exciting so we have bits that should help us around here, but I think even without the extra bits we would have had a pretty good car around here."
Button added that he would be surprised to see Red Bull dominating in the same way that Sebastian Vettel did in Valencia.
"We were there [Valencia], but not here," he said when asked if he is alarmed by Red Bull's updates. "I don't think we'll see an advantage like we saw there."
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