I am not a LH fan by a long shot, but respect is still due for his achievements Part of F1 is being able to pick and choose the right team. He chose to leave McLaren and join Mercedes, everyone said that was a mistake at the time, why leave Mclaren, a race winning team with pedigree then they had the worse spell they have ever had so he knew something and made the right choice. But also dont get me wrong, when Ferrari dominated in the early 00's everyone else "could" of caught up, same with the Red bull run with Vettel but what Merc did was build an advantage, then there were rules stopping anyone catching up. Merc killed my interest in F1 by buying the advantage then stopping the competition - any driver on the grid would of chose that car over their current one for that period. This year, hopefully people will at least make up some ground during hte year so while I am resigned to the fact its a one team race, the race for 2nd best team could still move around Red bull have just done a better job than anyone else - just hope the drivers are allowed to race and not protect MV
Its even better than i thought, as you kindly pointed out, they were team mates for three seasons, over the course of the three seasons, Jenson scored more overal points than Lewis, and in 2011 ,kicked his ass ,
But its also true that of the three seasons they were team mates. Hamilton finished the season ahead of Button twice. Hamilton would have had an advantage in the first season as a long standing member of McLaren knowing the people & politics etc vs newboy. I'd say that they were pretty closely matched.
My original point was ,that as posted by Simon moore, Hamilton did not destroy all his team mates ,and i have to say i agree with your views, that Jenson and Lewis were fairly evenly matched. I think that Jensen is another of those drivers who could of won multiple world championships if he had not stayed with McLaren .
Button was a top driver. Though I imagine in every season there are at least four guys who, if in the quickest car, could win the WDC of that season. Currently that would be Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso & LeClerc. But only one guy typically has the fastest car, and a slower teamate specially chosen to support. In 2009 those were Button, Hamilton Vettel & Alonso.
And then there's George Russell. He beat Hamilton last year. So that's 3 Hamilton team mates that beat him. Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg and George Russell. How many team mates has he had in total? 5? That's 3 out of 5 that beat him.
I would include George Russell in that. I think if the Merc still had total dominance, then George would be champion. I don't think he is there as a number 2 like Bottas. George is a replacement for when Hamilton retires.
