Jenson Button has called Lewis Hamilton “the cleanest guy I’ve ever raced” and believes everyone should be a fan of the six-time World Champion, regardless of whether they like him as a person.
2009 champion Button spent three of his 17 seasons in Formula 1 as Hamilton’s team-mate and outscored him during one of those years, and admitted he was proud of what he achieved against a driver who is set to break all the major records and match the great Michael Schumacher’s title tally this year.
“I think he’s quite a shy character,” Button responded when asked by GQ Magazine to share something about Hamilton. “You can probably see that.
“I don’t know Lewis now that well [but] Lewis in 2012 was an extremely talented driver, whose whole life was about racing.
“I had to work so hard to beat him, and obviously it didn’t happen all the time. But it happened enough that I was happy with what I achieved.
“On balance he out-qualified me, but I could race him, and use my head because it wasn’t all about driving flat-out in a grand prix. It isn’t now. But Lewis has learnt a lot since then. He’s always looking after the tyres, the fuel, the car… he knows what he’s doing.”
Button applauds Hamilton for using his platform to further Black rights and believes everyone should be a fan of his, even if they don’t like him as a person, because he doesn’t race dirty or play mind games with rival drivers.
“He’s in a position now where he can relax and think about other things in addition to driving the car. He can be very outspoken and I think it’s great that he is. It will help the sport and the diversity of the sport.
“Whether or not you’re a fan of Lewis as a person, you should definitely be a fan of him as a driver.
“He is exceptionally talented, and he does not play games. He will never play dirty. In fact, I think he’s the cleanest guy I ever raced against.”
Meanwhile Button refuses to agree that he and BrawnGP had it easy in ’09 when they won the title together after hastily forming a new team after manufacturer Honda pulled the plug on its involvement.
“What a year 2009 was” he added. “People say we had it easy that season, but we never out-qualified anyone by more than three or four tenths. We didn’t have an advantage, and we didn’t have the advantage of being a slick outfit either.
“We arrived at the first race and we hadn’t done any pit-stop practice with that car, or a high fuel run. It was far from perfect, but there was so much excitement in the team because we didn’t think we’d have a job, let alone win a bunch of races.
“We had a new wing at one point but there weren’t really any updates on the car. And I raced the same chassis all season…”
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