Jenson Button recalls ‘ding dong’ with Lewis Hamilton over McLaren team orders

Follow us on Google Discover

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button spent three seasons as teammates at McLaren. Button joined in 2009 off the back of winning the world championship with Brawn and dethroning Hamilton in the process.

Over the course of their partnership, Button scored marginally points – 672 to 657. Hamilton finished higher in the standings in both 2010 and 2012, but Button outscored him by 43 points in the intervening year.

Hamilton took more victories (10 vs eight), but his teammate had the edge for podiums (25 vs 22). The only area where they weren’t closely matched was qualifying, with Hamilton taking nine poles to Button’s one and winning the overall head-to-head 44-14.

Still, there wasn’t the kind of tension you might expect between two British world champions vying to be number one in an iconic team. For the most part, they were clean on track and respectful off it.

One exception came at the 2011 Canadian GP, a race Button won in memorable fashion but only after colliding with his teammate. Hamilton and Button tangled on the pit straight, with the latter at fault as he moved over amidst the spray and forced the sister car into the wall.

At the end of the 2012 season, Hamilton left to join Mercedes on the eve of their historic dominance. Button would stay with McLaren, whose fortunes nosedived from 2013, until the end of his career.

Lewis Hamilton was unhappy with Jenson Button over unsanctioned McLaren battle

During the latest Sky Sports F1 podcast, Button revisited the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix. The race is best known for the crash involving Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, which saw the former retire.

Webber was able to finish third but the McLaren pair briefly battled for victory. That was until the pit wall told Button to hold position behind his teammate, who was saving fuel.

Hamilton wasn’t expecting Button to fight him at first given the radio messages he’d received, so he angrily confronted him after the race despite taking victory. It quickly became clear that their issue was down to miscommunication.

“The only time that I had team orders that I can remember in my career was in 2010 Turkey,” Button said. “Lewis was told that I wasn’t going to fight him because he had to save fuel.

“I wasn’t told that information, so I overtook him, he overtook me again, and then the team came on the radio and said ‘Jenson, hold position’. After the race, we had a bit of a ding dong, because Lewis thought I was told to not overtake but I wasn’t, so miscommunication.”

How ‘three seasons’ of experiments have hurt Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes

Hamilton is now up against George Russell, the 26-year-old Mercedes academy graduate. Russell beat him immediately after joining in 2022 before Hamilton struck back last year.

This term, the seven-time world champion is ahead in the standings, but only by 19 points. He’s also on the end of an unassailable 13-5 qualifying deficit.

Mercedes’ set-up experiments may have hurt Hamilton in this regard. He’s spent ‘three seasons’ testing different solutions, which has naturally made him less comfortable in the car.

Button believes Mercedes have the standout line-up in F1, but it will only last for another six races. Hamilton is joining Ferrari next year, with teenager Kimi Antonelli set to replace him.