Lewis Hamilton’s BEST F1 team-mate just retired, here’s how he beat the legend

Jenson Button

Lewis Hamilton’s BEST team-mate just retired, here’s how he beat the F1 legend

Jenson Button won the 2009 world championship

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 10 November 2025 20:57

When you think of Lewis Hamilton's best F1 team-mate, you'll probably be picturing Nico Rosberg, the only driver to claim a world championship when driving alongside Hamilton.

Or how about Fernando Alonso, who finished level on points with Hamilton in 2007, one point from word championship success?

But it was Jenson Button who really proved to be an impressive match for Hamilton's supreme talent, right when the now seven-time champion was at the peak of his powers.

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Button retired from F1 back in 2016 - barring a one-off race in 2017 when he stepped in for Alonso who went off to try and seek Indy500 success - but the Brit has this month finally retired from motorsport completely.

Since leaving F1, Button has competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in recent years, as well as winning the Super GT - GT500 title back in 2018.

But the 8 Hours of Bahrain race last weekend - where Button and his team finished 16th - was the final race of the Brit's illustrious racing career.

So, with Button stepping back to spend more time with his young family, now is the time to assess his career, and point to his legacy as Lewis Hamilton's greatest challenge as a team-mate.

A blockbuster partnership

When Button announced his move to McLaren for the 2010 season, British F1 fans were abuzz with excitement in what looked on paper to be one of the best driver partnerships in history.

The 2008 and 2009 F1 world champions coming together at one of the most successful teams in F1 history, and what's more, they were both British and were very familiar with one another's talents.

Unfortunately for both Hamilton and Button, however, it coincided with a period of Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel dominance, with the German winning titles in all three seasons that the British duo spent together at McLaren.

Despite this, it was a great battle between the pair, as they tussled to become McLaren's main title challenger throughout the years, and the 2011 season in particular was a blockbuster one.

As Vettel ran away with the championship once again, Button quietly put in arguably one of his best ever seasons in the sport, picking up three grands prix wins and finishing second in the drivers' championship.

One of those victories, of course, was his 2011 Canadian Grand Prix win, largely considered to be his most masterful drive.

In awful conditions, Button battled his way from the very back of the field up to second, before a Vettel skid off-track on the final lap of the race allowed the Brit to take a stunning victory.

Hamilton also took three wins that year, but was much less consistent than Button, claiming just six podiums to Button's 12, as the 2009 world champion established himself as the 'best of the rest' behind a sublime Vettel.

It was the only time across the three seasons that they spent as team-mates that Button beat Hamilton, but he beat him by a comprehensive 43 points, and it was seen as a battle between two British drivers who were right at the peak of their powers at the time.

Hamilton's best team-mates

The fact that Rosberg won the 2016 world championship against Hamilton throws him right into that bracket alongside Button, but it's fair to say that Hamilton suffered a lot of bad luck in 2016.

Rosberg drove brilliantly well all season long, but had it not have been for Hamilton's engine issues in Malaysia, he likely would have won that title, showing in the final four races when he won them all that he had what it took to beat Rosberg in a straight fight.

The only drivers who have beaten Hamilton as comprehensively points-wise as Button in 2011, however, are more recent team-mates George Russell and Charles Leclerc.

In fact, Leclerc's current margin of 66 points over Hamilton means that he could potentially inflict a record team-mate defeat on Hamilton over the course of a single season with three race weekends remaining.

However, the fact that Leclerc is down in fifth in the championship standings himself this year - coupled with the fact that Hamilton is now 40 - makes that feat less impressive than both Rosberg and Button's standings victories over Hamilton.

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Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren Jenson Button