Button: Lewis Is The Worst Possible Teammate To Have Because He Is So Fast – Straight Up
Quick Note: I wrote a post about teammates and inter-team rivalries, number one and two drivers within a team. Whether you are at McLaren which has no driver status or Ferrari which clearly does, inevitably these numbers are always assigned to each driver, by either the media, the fans or the team itself. Lewis was defacto #1 at McLaren.
Jenson Button has admitted that Lewis Hamilton is the fastest teammate he has been up against in his long career in Formula 1.
Button spent three years as Hamilton’s teammate at McLaren and said, “Lewis is the fastest team-mate I’ve been up against.”
“Rubens Barrichello could sometimes pull it out of the bag in qualifying and be quick over one lap, but Lewis does that pretty much every qualifying session and he’s also very competitive during the race.”
“A lot of drivers would say that Lewis is the worst possible team-mate to have because he is so fast, but I find that exciting, it pushes me forwards,” added Button.
Button was beaten by Hamilton in the championship by two points in 2012, their last as teammates, but during the course of their three seasons together Button outscored Hamilton 672 to 657.
Hamilton moved to Mercedes at the end of 2012, while Button remained at McLaren and signed for an extra year which will see him drive for the team at least until the end of 2014.
MyTake
It is as simple as this. Lewis Hamilton is as fast or faster then both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel on any given day. As far as one lap speed, Hamilton is equal to Vettel and showed us that quite convincingly this past year. What makes Hamilton so fast and the “Worst Possible Teammate” as Jenson Button states is his ability to find the extra stuff, this is what makes Alonso so good as well and why, when people talk about a complete driver Alonso’s name is usually at the top, but Hamilton is right there and I think in 2013, driving a different car, Lewis really upped his stock in this department. If Mercedes actually builds a fast, reliable, kind to its tires car, Lewis could be on the verge of a two or three year run and won’t that just make everyone at RedBull and Ferrari jump with joy. Ha ha. -jp-
AmerF1can 