McLaren head to Barcelona with a heavily revised MP4-30 for both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, in the hope they can score their first points of the season.
The Woking team has struggled this season following its recoupling with engine supplier Honda, but progress has been steady with Alonso securing 11th last time out in Bahrain.
Button believes they’ll make further progress in Spain with a major development package to the car and power unit, with the Briton believing the midfield could be within reach.
“There’s upgrades in every area really,” he said on Thursday. “We haven’t come here with a second of lap time because that just doesn’t happen in Formula 1 these days, even when you started where we did.
“But it’s a good chunk. We’ve got upgrades with the power unit and aerodynamically with the car, but also mechanically there are a few things as well.
Alonso suffering from an eye infection keeps his sunglasses on during Thursday’s FIA press conference
“The middle pack is very close and for the taking, maybe, so looking forward to that challenge this weekend. Also, this circuit should suit us a little bit better than the last race in Bahrain. It’ll definitely suit me better – I’ll hopefully go round this time!”
Meanwhile team-mate Alonso, who is currently suffering with an eye infection, believes McLaren is proving its critics wrong by improving quicker than many expected.
“I’m enjoying the challenge,” he added. “We started at the bottom and we are climbing the mountain and doing it quicker than everyone expected. This is thanks to all the work that the team is doing and I feel very proud to be here.
“In China and Bahrain everything we brought to the car delivered as expected so coming to this weekend our hope is that everything we bring here keeps going into the car in a healthy way and performing better.
“We are in the fifth race, the championship is long and we still have high hopes that things will change quickly and we will start performing a little bit better.”
