Hamilton struggled to adjust when I joined McLaren, says Button

Jenson Button believes Lewis Hamilton struggled to adjust to having another big-name driver as a Formula 1 teammate when he joined McLaren in 2010, saying: "I don't think that I was to his taste."

Off the back of his F1 world title win in 2009 with Brawn, Button moved to McLaren for 2010 to partner Hamilton, who had been working with Heikki Kovalainen for the two years prior.

16.07.2017 - Race, Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W08 race winner and Jenson Button (GBR) McLa
16.07.2017 - Race, Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W08 race winner…
© PHOTO 4

Jenson Button believes Lewis Hamilton struggled to adjust to having another big-name driver as a Formula 1 teammate when he joined McLaren in 2010, saying: "I don't think that I was to his taste."

Off the back of his F1 world title win in 2009 with Brawn, Button moved to McLaren for 2010 to partner Hamilton, who had been working with Heikki Kovalainen for the two years prior.

Hamilton and Button experienced a number of tense moments during their three seasons together at McLaren, with the pair nearly coming to blows at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and also entering a spat on social media after Hamilton shared data from his teammate's car publicly.

Writing in his autobiography Life to the Limit , Button opened up about his relationship with Hamilton at McLaren, believing the now-three-time world champion was not as comfortable in the team as before.

"Personally, he was fine with me, no issues at all at this stage of the game, but you could just tell he was a little bit peeved," Button wrote.

"That thing about it being his team? It was right on the money. And, if you ask me, he was finding it difficult to get a handle on the fact that it was our team now.

"It was good that we were able to come in and lift the place, add a bit of much-needed levity. I'm not sure that was to Lewis' taste. I don't think that I was to his taste, if I'm honest."

Button also said he struggled to relate to Hamilton off-track, calling the Briton "a bit weird".

"As people, we had a lot in common. There was our shared karting history, not to mention the fact that his dad was a customer of my dad," Button wrote.

"And, unlike a lot of drivers in Formula 1, neither of us came from an especially wealthy background. We'd achieved what we had through talent and a lot of grafting.

"When we spent time together it was nice, and he'd always strike up a conversation with dad, and we'd hang out a bit.

"But at the same time there were an awful lot of awkward and uncomfortable silences, and often I'd think: 'What's going unsaid here?'"

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