Jenson Button is convinced his Brawn team is closer to rival Red Bull Racing in Germany than it was at the British Grand Prix. The Briton admitted, however, that he is hoping for warmer temperatures in order to be competitive enough to be able to fight the Red Bull cars.
"We're definitely more competitive than at Silverstone, compared to the Red Bulls but I don't know how competitive yet," Button told reporters after Friday practice. "There's still a lot of work to do, we've just got to hope it's warmer tomorrow, it's supposed to be. But it was supposed to be warmer today, too.
"We've got a couple of parts, but the parts alone are not enough to help us beat the Red Bulls. In Hungary again we have another step. If we keep developing race by race, that's important. Red Bull had a big package on the car at Silverstone and it's difficult to have something new after that."
Button, third-quickest today, conceded he was hoping for higher temperatures that would suit his car better.
"I'd rather it was warm, for sure, not just us but a lot of people are struggling with the hard tyre, to get it to work," Button said. "It's 12C (54 degrees F), you know. This is winter temperatures. It wasn't even this cold in England!
"But the softer tire we get to work a little bit better and we've done some reasonably good work today, but there is still some work to do. I'm not that happy with the setup of the car and we don't quite understand the softer tire yet."
The championship leader fears that only with higher temperatures will he able to be a match for the Red Bulls, which he reckons are faster than his car.
"For us, chipping away at the Red Bulls is key. First if all we've got to have a good race here. I like the circuit. If the temperatures are warmer, we can really take the fight to the Red Bull here, which would be fun."
He added: "The McLarens seem to be quite good here. I'm sure Lewis was on quite low fuel, but even so they're quite competitive and the Ferraris were OK as well.
"This is a circuit that suits our car more than Silverstone. The temperature is not perfect for us but even with the low temperatures here today we're OK. But I don't think we're on Red Bull's pace."