Lewis, Alonso can get more out of a bad car than I can, says former driver Jenson Button

Former Formula One driver Jenson Button was often a match for his teammate throughout his career no matter how strong they were. However, Button recently admitted that there was one area where he just could not get the better of two of his former teammates, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. As per the former McLaren driver, both Hamilton and Alsonso have an exceptional ability to drive a car that would not challenge for the championship. Button spent the majority of his career at McLaren. He was Hamilton’s teammate from 2010 to 2012 and Alonso’s teammate from 2015 to 2016. Button was always as good as his teammate but he admitted that he could never get the most out of an underperforming car as Hamilton and Alonso could.

“My greatest weakness was that I wasn’t willing to move on from a bad weekend,” Button told the High Performance podcast. “But I feel I’ve definitely got over that. One thing I’ve not been able to get over is driving a bad car. That’s my weakness. Lewis (and) Fernando Alonso can jump in a bad car and get more out of it than I can. That’s probably my weakness,” the former McLaren driver continued.

Speaking about the current world champion, Button outlined how his and Hamilton’s driving styles were so different. “(My) strength is (that) the way I drive is very different to most,” the 2009 F1 World Champion said. “For example, Lewis comes into a corner, it’s great because I have all the speed traces and everything from the data when we were teammates, but hammers the brake as hard as he can, there’s no modulation, turns into the corner, goes on the throttle, the same amount of pressure every time, and he does everything through the steering wheel,” he added.

Button explained if it was him in a similar situation, he would have done something completely different. “Whereas I was the complete opposite. I would brake and modulate it, to stop front locking, and I would come on the throttle and modulate the throttle, so I didn’t have to change my steering angle,” he said. “So I’d be smooth on the steering. They’d say, ‘Oh, he looks so smooth’. It’s just because that’s what I would use very differently than someone like Lewis. That hurt me in some ways, but it helped me in those mixed conditions (to) really feel the condition underneath me,” Button concluded.

ALONSO VS HAMILTON AT THE 2021 HUNGARIAN GP

Recently, Hamilton and Alonso put up an absolute classic battle at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon was in the lead while Alonso was in fourth position. Hamilton had charged from the back of the field and it seemed like Mercedes would take pole. However, Alonso defended his position for a significant number of laps before Hamilton passed him. This resulted in the defending champion finishing in third while Alonso’s teammate took the pole. Hamilton might have finished ahead of Alonso but the Spaniard was definitely the winner of that battle.