Jenson Button thinks the upgrades McLaren introduced at the German Grand Prix have given them a significant boost in dry conditions.
Former World Champion thinks upgrades are helping tyre understanding
Jenson Button thinks the major upgrades McLaren introduced at the German Grand Prix represent a significant step forward in their efforts to understand Pirelli's tyres.
Button finished second behind Fernando Alonso at Hockenheim - a much-needed result for the 2009 World Champion after a string of poor performances.
Perhaps more so than his rivals, Button has struggled to get the most out of this season's tyres, the performance of which has appeared particularly sensitive according to changing track conditions.
Button thinks the upgrades, which centred on revised sidepods and a rear wing as well as mechanical changes, have gone some way to improving tyre performance.
However, after McLaren's poor qualifying performance in Germany - Button and team-mate Lewis Hamilton lined up sixth and seventh respectively - he thinks still thinks they need to work hard to improve performance in wet conditions.
Speaking ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, Button said: "I feel that the parts we put on the car work for us and I think maybe they're getting the tyres to work more in the dry conditions.
"The dry is much better - much better. There's still some areas where I feel we're weak compared to the Ferrari and the Red Bull - I got to look at their cars quite a lot at Hockenheim - but there are areas where we're stronger also.
"In the wet it's still tough, because we struggle to get temperature into the tyres. If the conditions are slightly wrong, slightly too wet for that tyre, it doesn't work and we're four seconds off the pace like we were at Hockenheim.
"The car, if you get temperature in the tyres and the tyre's working, is good in whatever conditions. The problem is that if we don't get the temperature we're nowhere."
He added: "You don't get the tyre working and then you damage the tyre because you're sliding more. It's just a very unusual situation; I've never felt that in Formula 1 before.
"But I think we understand it a lot more now, which is nice."
Button was promoted to second place in the German Grand Prix classification after Sebastian Vettel was penalised for using the run-off area to overtake him two laps from the end of the race.
The defending World Champion said he had left the track in order to give his rival room and prevent a collision - something Button disputes.
"He had room when he was next to me. That's why I had oversteer on the exit, because I was leaving him room on the exit. If you look at the throttle trace, he got on the throttle very early - unusually early," he said.
Vettel's move came after he lost second place to Button following his final pit stop - something the Red Bull driver claimed came as a consequence of Hamilton's earlier move to unlap himself.
However, Button said he doubted whether Hamilton's charge had actually been of benefit to him.
"I actually thought at the time it didn't help me, because it meant Sebastian could use his DRS behind Lewis and gain four or five tenths on the back straight, and I was out of the DRS zone at that point," he said.
"I didn't think it helped initially. Whether it did or not...obviously Sebastian thinks it did help him. I'm not going to go against that because I wasn't in Sebastian's car at the time."
Button, who currently lies seventh in the drivers' standings 89 points behind leader Alonso, is hoping for another strong result this weekend.
"I'd hope it was the same as Hockenheim. We have good updates that I think help us with the tyres and make it more of a consistent balance," he said.
"Whether it's the same as Hockenheim, who knows? We don't seem to know that these days. It's going to be quite a lot hotter here, the circuit temperature, which again changes things."
