F1 News
Button on Hamilton: "I'd be surprised if he changes teams" after Mercedes success
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Jenson Button sees no reason for his former teammate Lewis Hamilton to change teams after the 2020 season, when the Brit's contract runs out, as Hamilton has been part of a title-winning machine at Mercedes for the better part of a decade with no signs of slowing down.
With the big regulation overhaul inbound in 2021, it could shake up the order of the grid depending on how well each constructor interprets the new rules on their 2021 challengers.
Hamilton has won five of his six championships since joining Mercedes in 2013, winning the last three consecutively. The Silver Arrows looked the quickest car yet again in pre-season testing in Barcelona and are favourites in 2020 once more.
“But there are always going to be rumours when a guy has won six world championships," Button countered when speaking to The Mirror. "Sometimes teams comment on situations like that to unsettle drivers or to unsettle other teams. Who knows what truths there are in it?"
Button spent three years in the garage with Hamilton at McLaren between 2010 and 2012, before the now-six-time champion jumped ship to Mercedes. Button, a world champion himself, can't see his fellow countryman switching teams again, however.
“I'd be surprised if Lewis changes teams. He has repaid them winning five world championships with them and they have given him the car to do so. It is very difficult for him to walk away from that.
“I don’t know what would make you change your mind and make you want to leave a team you have such a great relationship with. It’s not like he is seeing them spiral out of control or not have the funding in the future or not become a manufacturer.
“I think that is the only thing that would make him think of moving teams; if Mercedes wasn’t Mercedes anymore.”
So far, Hamilton has shown no intention of moving teams, although contract negotiations for 2021 have not started either.