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Jenson Button believes closing the gap to Mercedes will be easier due to new regs

Briton feels there is still lots of room for aerodynamic development

Jenson Button

Jenson Button believes the gap to Mercedes will be easier to close in 2014 than in previous seasons thanks to the new Technical Regulations and McLaren can catch the new F1 frontrunners - but perhaps not this weekend in Malaysia.

The 2009 World Champion feels that the high-speed nature of the Sepang International Circuit could hinder McLaren, but hopes the parts they bring to the MP4-29 this weekend will help them pick up time in the slower corners. "It is always difficult to really put a number on it, you've got to drive to really get an understanding of the aerodynamics and the upgrades so we will be doing that and comparisons to see if the upgrades give us what we hope for. It should really help us with the balance of the car, more than just sticking on downforce it should actually help us achieve what we want with this car as we found ourselves a little bit limited in Melbourne," he revealed. "This is a high-speed circuit compared to Melbourne and that is an area where we are not at our strongest. So that will hurt us a bit, but in low-speed corners I think we are going to be stronger this race which is good and a lot of the lap time is made up in slow speed corners as you are in the corner for longer and I think our efficiency should be a little bit better as well. So I am pretty positive about the direction we have taken the car and hopefully we can keep bringing parts to every race as that is the only way we are going to catch Mercedes."

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