McLaren need to improve quickly - Button

Jenson Button believes the two races before the mid-season break will be crucial to McLaren's hopes for the rest of the season.

McLaren got their campaign off to a flier with Button winning in Australia, while Lewis Hamilton was consistently finishing on the podium. However, things have taken a turn for the worse and, in particular for Button, who has been fallen to eighth place in the standings and a huge 79 points behind leader Fernando Alonso. Red Bull and Ferrari have demonstrated their power with new developments to their respective cars but McLaren have now seemingly fallen down the pecking order behind Lotus and Mercedes as well, judging by recent results. Button believes that McLaren still have a car that can challenge for honours but that the team needs to improve quickly if they want to stay in the hunt. "The final back-to-back before we head into the summer break will be important for the whole team: coming off the back of a couple of disappointing weekends, it's important that we capitalise on the opportunities available in Germany and Hungary," Button said. "Performance-wise, I still think it's difficult to accurately predict where we stand in the competitive order - Valencia and Silverstone were certainly difficult races for us, but I don't think they were truly representative of our pace. "This year, you really need a problem-free build-up to the race if you're going to maximise the car's potential - and that's exactly what we'll be hoping for in Germany next weekend."