Former F1 driver Jenson Button thinks he knows where the danger will come from for his former teammate Lewis Hamilton next season. The Briton warns his former colleague in advance, but thinks Hamilton is up to the challenge.
The Mercedes team is not yet at the same height as it was during their dominant years from 2014 to 2020. The German team is still not always competing for podium places, and will therefore probably have to look around in 2024 to see if other teams do not pass them by in the race to close the gap to Red Bull Racing. Button, a former teammate of Mercedes driver Hamilton when both drivers still drove for McLaren, knows which team his former teammate should keep an eye on.
“The young talents at McLaren are super strong,” Button warns via Sky Sports. The former F1 driver especially has a lot of praise for the youngest driver of his old team. ‘Oscar (Piastri, ed.) will enter the 2024 season with more consistency with a year of experience under his belt. He clearly showed glimpses of greatness (in 2023, ed.), but then the consistency just wasn’t there. I think in the end he had less than half of Lando’s (Norris, ed.) points.’ Piastri scored 97 points during his debut season, while teammate Norris managed 205 points.
Button praises Piastri
However, Button now expects that Piastri, with a year of experience under his belt, will show great things next season. “Now that he’s going into his second season, he’s got the hang of it and I think he’ll be competitive. So those two drivers (Norris and Piastri, ed.) will certainly give McLaren a boost,” Button warns. Yet the Briton does have confidence in his former teammate, because Button called Hamilton ‘even better than five or six years ago.’
