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Former F1 world champion Jenson Button recently said Lewis Hamilton was surprised to find how supportive the McLaren team was when he joined them in 2010. Button explained that he would spend more time with the engineers as he was trying to build a strong team around himself.
Jenson Button won the 2009 world championship with Brawn GP but left the team the year after to join McLaren. He was then paired up with the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton.
But the 45-year-old has explained that he quickly settled into the British team and received their support, even though his teammate had already become the big dog at Woking.
Speaking on Sky Sports' The F1 Show recently, Button shared what it was like to be Hamilton's teammate. The pair raced together from 2010 to 2012 until Hamilton left for Mercedes.
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After explaining that it was tough to go up against one of the brightest talents at the time, Button also revealed one thing that surprised Hamilton in 2010.
"The thing that probably he is a lot stronger with now than in 2010 is the mental side of things. You know, it was a lot more difficult back then. I think he felt that it was his team, and I came in and didn't make it my team, but I spent a lot more time with the mechanics and the engineers to build a team of people around me," said Button.
"And I think he was surprised by that and that they were supporting me as much as they were him," he added.
Hamilton beat Button in two of the three seasons that they were teammates at McLaren. 2011 was the only season when the latter got the better of the former as he finished second in the drivers' standings.
Jenson Button shares one of Lewis Hamilton's biggest strengths
Jenson Button has said that one of Lewis Hamilton's biggest strengths is his ability to learn a lot from his teammates. The 2009 world champion explained that Hamilton has learned about different aspects of F1 throughout his career from different teammates and rivals, including Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, and even Button himself.
Speaking on the show above, Button explained:
"I think he has learned all the way through his career, and that is the thing with Lewis. He picks up a lot from his teammates. From Fernando Alonso he learned a lot about how to actually drive an F1 car. And then probably the stuff out of the car he learned more from me. And from Nico [Rosberg he learned] how to be ruthless."
"So he has had all these drivers that he has learned a lot from, and that is what makes this amazing Lewis Hamilton that we have," he added.
Button also said he was slightly upset to see Hamilton struggling to find form at Ferrari in 2025. He explained that his issues could be down to the complexities of modern F1 cars in the ground-effect era, a period in which many drivers have found it difficult when joining a new team.
