Jenson Button says the pace of the new Mercedes has caught his eye over the ten days of testing so far.

“I really don’t know who’s quick and who isn’t,” he began, before adding: “I’d say that one team that has been consistently quick and consistent on their runs is the Mercedes more than anyone else.

Button remains keen to get some more representative running at the wheel of his MP4-28 following the cold and wet conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya:

“We can always be confident we can do a good job but I need another day in the car,” he told media in Barcelona.

“Not to feel it, the feeling of the car is there, I understand the car, they’re not the different. But in terms of set-up work, yes, we definitely need another day.

“Today is really the first time that I’ve done set-up work that’s helped us with the direction,” he added. “And on such an unusual day in terms of weather, to have a good day is unusual.

“So I’m happy with the progress we made today but I still feel there’s so much more we need to do before the first race. So I’ll be watching closely tomorrow with Checo [Perez] in the car.

“And on Sunday – not just to get the laps done on Sunday – but we need to get a lot of laps done and that’s because we need to spend a lot of time on the circuit to understand the car a bit more and also just developing the car.

“I feel there’s so much we haven’t done in terms of the general set-up work that you would do with a new car.”

Button said the team’s progress has been delayed by the length of time it is taking them to make set-up changes on the new car.

“When we make a set-up change it does take a lot of time,” he said. “That’s normal with a new car but still it’s taking a little bit too long.”

“That’s cost us a lot of time in the garage and it’s hurt our comparisons on the circuit. So that’s something we need to improve in the next two days.”

“Dry weather for two days and circuit temperatures in the twenties, thirties is what we need because I haven’t driven in that condition since Jerez. All the days I’ve driven have been freezing cold so it’d be nicer to drive in slightly hotter conditions that are sort of comparable to what we find in Melbourne.”

2013 F1 season

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