McLaren’s new rookie driver Kevin Magnussen will provide Jenson Button with the push he needs according to test driver Gary Paffett.
Paffett, who competes in the German DTM, believes Button performs better when he’s up against a competitive team-mate like Lewis Hamilton.
The Briton doesn’t believe Sergio Perez provided that, but does believe the young Dane can.
“What we want to see at McLaren is Jenson to be pushed hard this year,” he said. “Jenson needs someone quicker than him to push him harder. That’s what we saw with Lewis Hamilton in the team.
“Last year with the drivers quite closely matched there didn’t seem to be too much pushing going on in the team and I really think Kevin can bring that.”
Whilst Magnussen is an unknown given this will be his first season in F1, he’s impressed during his Formula Renault career and during testing.
“He is extremely fast from what we’ve seen of him in testing,” added Paffett who also believes the 21-year-old vastly improved as a racer last year.
“Kevin lacks the experience of racing in F1 but what we saw over the last two years in World Series was how much he changed as a driver.
“He was quick but a bit reckless and had a lot of incidents in 2012, but in 2013 he was a very complete driver – still quick but a lot wiser and a lot more technical than he was before.”
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