Jenson Button says that McLaren-Honda is braced for a steep learning curve at this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Button's squad endured a troublesome pre-season campaign at Jerez and Barcelona, with the Honda-powered MP4-30 beset by issues which limited track time.
"After the ups and downs of 2014, I feel that the challenge of 2015 is a completely new chapter in my career and I’m totally up for it," said Button, a three-time victor in Australia.
"The team’s commitment to development and improvement, both in Woking and in Japan, is astonishing, and despite some tricky days in testing, we are seeing definitive progress. The car is a solid base which gives me optimism that we will get there, we just need patience.
"Melbourne is always a fascinating spectacle: nobody quite knows where they’ll be in comparison to their rivals, and even though the other teams are now in the second year of the turbo era, all of the development from last year has been done very much behind the scenes, so I don’t think anyone has quite shown their full hand yet.
"The race at Albert Park will be a huge learning curve for us, but I’ll be working flat-out with my engineers to get the car set up as best we can, and together, we’ll fight right until the last moment to get the most out of the weekend."