Button Reveals Confrontation With Ron Dennis at McLaren F1 Concerning Lewis Hamilton

The 2000s was one of the driest spells for McLaren in their F1 history, as the British outfit hardly competed for the championship trophies. However, a rookie in Lewis Hamilton turned McLaren’s fortunes in 2007, having almost led the team to the first F1 title since 1999.

Although his first attempt ended as a failure, the Briton accomplished the feat in the very next season, and that victory led to McLaren’s rise in respect for Hamilton. In time, Hamilton became the center point of the team, and Jenson Button, too, recently affirmed that.

What did Button say?

During a podcast, Button pictured the exact scenario that took place when he entered McLaren for the first time in 2009. Apparently, he felt that it was more of a Lewis Hamilton F1 team rather than a McLaren F1 team.

The Briton further revealed the conversation he had with Ron Dennis when he realized Hamilton was the main man in the team.

“I remember walking into McLaren and the first thing I said was before I met anyone, I spoke to Martin Wimmer, Ron Dennis and I said, ‘My first question is, Is this Lewis’s team? Am I gonna have equal treatment here? If I’m not, I don’t wanna be here’.

“And they said, ‘Yes, everything will be 100% equal between both of the drivers’,” the Brawn world champion said while featuring in ‘The High-Performance‘ podcast.

Brawn advised Button against joining Lewis Hamilton

Button revealed that a lot, including his bosses, Ross Brawn and Nick Fry, warned against joining Hamilton at McLaren.

“People said that it was the craziest move to move to McLaren alongside Lewis Hamilton. And even Ross Brawn said that,” Button added.

“You know, I told the team that I was leaving at the end of 2009. I spoke to Nick Fry. He basically just shouted at me. He was one of the bosses alongside Ross Brawn at that time. ”

Overall, Button might have failed to make use of his phase at McLaren, and it only turned much worse since the hybrid era. However, he did accomplish the almost impossible task of beating Hamilton as a teammate. And in 15 years of Hamilton’s era, Button remains the only driver alongside Nico Rosberg to do so.

Watch Story: Lewis Hamilton: Ranking His F1 World Titles From 2008 to 2020