2009 World Champion Jenson Button has been teammates with both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso during his time at McLaren.
Alonso and Hamilton are two of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. Their careers however, have been very different from one another’s. Hamilton made his F1 debut in 2007, teaming up with Alonso and it was evident that the two were going to lock horns in the team.
In his very first year, Hamilton finished P2 in the Championship losing out to Kimi Raikkonen by just a point. However, he was still level on points with Alonso, who was a reigning two time World Champion. Due to difference in opinion within the team, Alonso left McLaren after the 2007 season.
After Button’s World Title win in 2009, he joined McLaren and teamed up with Hamilton. The two remained teammates until the 2012 season after which Hamilton joined Mercedes. In 2015, Alonso re-joined McLaren and this time he had Button in the team.
Button has had the privilege of being teammates with two all time greats but he claims that Alonso is a more complete driver than Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton was a very straightforward driver unlike Fernando Alonso
During a podcast session with 2016 Champion Nico Rosberg, Button revealed who he thinks is the quicker driver. Rosberg firstly asked who a quicker driver would be, over one lap. After a brief pause, the former Brawn GP driver said it would be Hamilton.
“I can only compare them from when I had them as teammates,” he said. “But the most complete driver was Fernando. He would find every way to be quicker than you. Lewis for me was a straightforward teammate.”
“He was very quick. Even in testing he could be not really on the pace. He was three or four tenths off me, and I don’t think he did it on purpose. And then comes qualifying and he would be just on it. He would always find the lap time to qualify.”
“Fernando would play games a lot more,” the 42-year old continued. “Which in a point in my career, I was up for games. What I mean is, we weren’t fighting anyone else, we were so slow that we were fighting against each other.”
Hamilton spent most of his career in Mercedes where he remains to this date. With them, he won six World Titles to add to the won he won at McLaren. Alonso meanwhile hasn’t won a Title since his back to back victories in 2005 and 2006.
