Jenson Button believes Mercedes will be facing a tricky situation this season as the team transitions towards its post-Hamilton era and possibly restricts its star driver’s access to information ahead of his move to Ferrari in 2025.
Like his Sky F1 colleagues, Button was astonished by Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes and fulfil his dream of racing for Ferrari.
But the 2009 F1 World Champion also agreed that the move was a massive affair for Formula 1 itself.
“Surprised? Yeah. This is massive for the sport,” Button told Sky F1. “If Lewis stayed at Mercedes… if they won races or didn’t win races, it would have been good, but having this shift to Ferrari is massive.
“I think it’s great for the sport, everyone is going to have their eyes on Formula 1, especially Ferrari and Lewis.
“But also how he does up against Charles Leclerc, who has the contract so I’m guessing he’s the one that’s going to be alongside Lewis at Ferrari.
“It’s a big deal making this change in your career when you’ve been in one team for so long, to suddenly jump into somebody else’s team; it’s tough, so fair play to Lewis.”
Beyond the realization of a childhood dream, Button reckons that his former McLaren teammate needed a fresh challenge to round off his career in Formula 1.
Ferrari, a historic rival with the greatest racing heritage in the sport, offers the seven-time world champion a great opportunity to bookend his own legacy with an extraordinary achievement.
“I think obviously 12 years at Mercedes is longer than most people ever spend in Formula 1, so to spend it with one team and achieve what they have, maybe he also wanted something different, to spice it up a little bit,” Button explained.
“We all get to that point in our career where it’s like, ‘you know what, I’ve done what I set out to achieve’ and you choose to retire. Whereas he’s gone the other route and gone, ‘you know what, I feel like I need a change, I’m going to go to Ferrari’.
“It’s a big deal and I cannot wait to see how he goes in the Ferrari.
“For Lewis, this is a brave move and a lot of respect to him,” Button added. “He’s not just going to another team, he’s going to Ferrari!
“He’s going to a team where they speak Italian, a language he doesn’t know, a language that Charles does know very well. This is a biggie, so I’m excited for this and it’s great for F1.”
However, Button warns that navigating the 2024 season could be tricky for both Hamilton and Mercedes, as team and driver aim to close their chapter on a high.
“The weird thing is that it’s quite an early call to mention it this early on,” he said. “But it’s a year before he’ll be stepping into the Ferrari, so how is that atmosphere going to be at Mercedes.
“It’s not easy, what do they hold back from Lewis?
“He knows the ins and outs of this team very well anyway, but when they get down to the nitty gritty are there going to be certain things they hold back from Lewis? Possibly.
“And for George [Russell], he’s got to start thinking about a new team-mate again. Is it going to be someone like his old karting rival Alex Albon or is it going to be Fernando Alonso? The guy that just doesn’t go away, he’s always there fighting for the top spots in the top teams.
“So who knows, and this definitely makes it an interesting year for us looking forward to 2025 already; we already have another year of Formula 1 to look forward to. But 2025, this is proper exciting.”
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