Fernando Alonso has hailed Jenson Button as his "best ever team-mate", after Button announced he was stepping away from a race drive role at McLaren for next season.
"I've been working with Jenson for the last two years," he said, "it was a fantastic work, and probably, not probably, I can say that he was the best team-mate I ever had, in terms of performance, in terms of feedback with the engineers and the car development was great with him."
Alonso also was positive about the changes for next year, with Button being retained in a devlopment and reserve role and with Stoffel Vandoorne replacing him in the race seat. "We will have Jenson in the team which is the most important thing" said the Spaniard.
"The best news of this change is that we will have Stoffel in the car with the fresh ideas and we will push the team to the maximum, but also we still have Jenson around us, helping us and giving all his contributions.
"So I think it's very good news for the team for the future, and now we are ready and looking forward to Australia."
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