Jenson Button once explained why he wasn’t able to win an F1 title with Lewis Hamilton as his teammate

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Jenson Button spent three seasons as Lewis Hamilton’s counterpart at McLaren, in one of the most star-studded British driver line-ups in Formula 1 history.

Fresh off the back of his and Brawn GP’s fairytale championship feat in 2009, Jenson Button decided to join his compatriot Lewis Hamilton at Woking as part of McLaren’s full-time driver line-up.

The British driver experienced some of his most celebrated victories at the team, including his famous win in Montreal at the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix.

Whilst the driver line-up marked the first time that two world champions filled both of McLaren’s seats since the days of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, Hamilton and Button were unable to replicate their feats of previous seasons, and the latter knows the exact reason why.

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Jenson Button disclosed ‘the only reason’ why he or Lewis Hamilton never won an F1 title as teammates

During a 2021 appearance with Nico Rosberg on the German world champion’s self-titled podcast, Button touched upon his move away to McLaren from Brawn GP after the latter was bought by Mercedes.

The 2009 world champion said, “Yeah, I mean, we can choose if we’re performing well as a driver, you get to choose kind of where you want to be, and you think it’s the right place.

“It’s like when I went to McLaren. After Brawn, it was the right decision, I have to say. I know that you were at Mercedes, but it was the right decision to go to McLaren.

“They ended the year with what should have been a win, but they had the failure with Lewis. And when I got there, it was a great team.

“The only reason why Lewis or myself didn’t win the World Championship is because we kept taking wins off of each other.

“You know, if it was the Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber situation, one of us might have won the world championship.

“So yeah, it was the right call. But then three years later, it wasn’t the right call. You know, Mercedes was the right place to be.”

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McLaren were lucky not to experience the same issues in 2025

Button’s honest admission about his title chances alongside Hamilton rings starkly similar to the dynamic that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had during the recently concluded 2025 campaign.

Both papaya drivers claimed seven wins during the season, with Norris taking home the bragging rights by securing his maiden world title at the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi.

However, it didn’t come easy for the British driver. The minuscule gap that Norris and Piastri shared saw them trading blows throughout the course of the season, and they almost missed out on the title to a late charge from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

In the end, Norris became the world champion by besting the Dutchman by just two points. The margins were so tight that any change in the Brit’s results throughout the season could have had damning effects in the grand scheme of things.