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Button says McLaren yet to show full potential
Jenson Button believes McLaren will start showing its true potential when the European F1 season begins in Spain next month.
Pablo Elizalde
Edited: Apr 28, 2016, 1:29 PM
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Neither Button nor teammate Fernando Alonso have managed to score points in the first three races of the year, with only Stoffel Vandoorne having finished in the top 10 in his one-off outing in Bahrain.
Alonso and Button finished in 12th and 13th in the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago.
The Briton reckons McLaren need to raise its game to start showing its full potential and score points regularly.
"[We are] not doing a good enough job possibly," said Button. "I think the last race... it was difficult for a driver to come home 12th/13th, it's not where you want to be, but if you look compared to last year - every car finished in China - so it is a big step forward compared to last year in China.
"In terms of where I think we are, our qualifying pace has been reasonable. I still don't think we have shown our true potential in qualifying either.
"We have been close to Q3. Circuits like this don't help either. When we get back to Europe, it should be easier to show our pace in qualifying.
"When we start scoring points on a regular basis, we will be a lot happier, but that hasn't happened yet."
Although Button admits the Honda engine has improved significantly compared to last year, he concedes there is still a long way to go.
"It is very difficult to know what 'nearly' means," he said. "I think we are very happy with the way the deployment is this year, we are a lot closer.
"In terms of outright power, I don't think anyone really knows. We know there is still a lot of work to do."
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble
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