Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso experience 'makes a massive difference' - Button

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Jenson Button says having two experienced drivers at McLaren "makes a massive difference", with the team making rapid progress so far this season.

Fernando Alonso joined McLaren from Ferrari at the end of last season, replacing Kevin Magnussen who had just completed his first year in F1. While Button speaks highly of Magnussen, the 2009 world champion says Alonso's experience coupled with his own has helped McLaren improve quickly after starting the year comfortably off the pace.

“Fernando is, as we all know, a very complete driver," Button said. "Fernando is a very fierce competitor in the race and to beat in a race you have to do an exceptional job but that’s what I’m here to do, to do an exceptional job.

"I’ve enjoyed working with Fernando so far this year and I think having two experienced drivers in this team makes a massive difference, especially with Honda because the feedback we give them makes a big difference."

And Button says McLaren's development has been helped by having two drivers ask for similar things from the MP4-30.

“Not saying too much but I think we both seem to like the same car. We develop a car in the same way, we have the same feeling from a car, so it’s good for both of us. We’ll see what happens later this year but so far I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Click here for a look back at Robert Kubica's only Formula One victory in Canada

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.