Back in 2010, Jenson Button joined Lewis Hamilton at McLaren to create what was dubbed as an all-British ‘super team’.
Button has had the experience of driving with both Hamilton and two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso. This brings up the question on how the two drivers stacked up against each other.
“Lewis was a world champion when we were teammates and also quite young,” Button said.
“He was a lot less experienced than the likes of Fernando Alonso at the time.
“Fernando was a wily old fox. He knew exactly what he needed to do to win. He had the speed but he also understood strategy and he knew what he had to do with the engineers to get them on his side.
“Lewis was straightforward, super-quick and could drive anything you put him in, really. They were very different from each other but I think the Lewis now is very different to back then. He has the experience.
“Back then it was just driving every lap flat out, and now he understands what he needs to do to get the best out of the car from A to B.”
Nico Rosberg did his bit to win
Over the course of their three seasons together, Button managed to score better than Hamilton. The 2009 world champion and Nico Rosberg were the only teammates to beat the 98-time race winner.
Rosberg was known to play mind games with Hamilton. However, Button approached the situation differently.
“I don’t know about playing mind games with him. The important thing for me was to get a team behind me,” Button reasoned.
“I jump into a car and if it isn’t suited to my style then it just doesn’t work for me. I’m not one of those drivers. I need a car developed around me and the team support around me to develop it in my direction.
“That’s what I did, and it worked for me. I think that mentally hurt Lewis a little bit at certain points of our time together but when Lewis probably has an issue or a bad weekend now, he will go away, think about it and come back. It’s just his job.”
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