Button questions pace of new McLaren

Just a day after 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher questioned the pace of his Mercedes, current title holder Jenson Button has hinted that his McLaren may also require improvements before he is able to challenge for race victories in his season of title defense.

Having taken his six victories of 2009 in the first seven races of the campaign, Button's victory tally could be somewhat the opposite this season as the Englishman knows that there is already room for a step up with his MP4-25.

"There's definitely more to come from this car," Button explained to GPUpdate.net at the Circuit de Catalunya, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton set to take over at the wheel tomorrow. "The day was too short, I would rather have another day of testing. Out of the box I'm happy with the consistency but don't think that we're at our maximum yet – there will be more to come."

Having finished his own pre-season running third on the timesheets and eight tenths of a second off leader Nico Rosberg's pace, Button hopes for further improves on Sunday. "We'll see tomorrow after a few setup changes – hopefully that will help the balance," he continued. "We need more time with this update, more mileage – it's a good update but we're not getting the best out of it."

Jenson added that he believes the red cars are currently the ones to beat: "On long runs, Ferrari is competitive. Others, I don't know – Sauber will surprise people as they're quicker than most of us think. Five or six teams are competitive…exciting!"