"I'd be more fearful going up against Max Verstappen than Lewis Hamilton": When former F1 world champion Jenson Button shared his more feared teammate

Former world Champion Jenson Button previously claimed that he would be more fearful of going up against Max Verstappen than Lewis Hamilton. The British driver has competed with both world champions at different points in his career given that he was teammates with Hamilton and raced against Verstappen for the last three years of his F1 career.

The 2009 world champion raced alongside his fellow Brit in McLaren for three years from 2010 to 2012 and gave him a tough fight on a consistent basis. However after Hamilton left the Woking-based outfit for Mercedes in 2013, he won six of his seven driver's championships from 2014 to 2020.

Max Verstappen, on the other hand, is currently dominating the sport having won the last four driver's championships and even beat Lewis Hamilton in 2021 to win his first title.

Speaking with Sky Sports in 2023, Jenson Button remarked that he would not like to go up against the Dutchman given his command over his car, saying:

"I'd be more fearful going up against Max in the same car. And I think it is because the car is designed around his style, or he can drive a car that Adrian Newey gives him. I think Adrian Newey gives him a car that says, 'This is the quickest car in the world. If you take away front downforce, it's going to go slower, but it'll be easy to drive'."

"Max is like, 'Right, I have to drive how you've made this car, and I need to drive as quickly as I can'. So I think that he's very good at that. And I think a lot of drivers struggle to compete with that. It's a difficult one. I think Lewis has had more difficult mates, but I also wouldn't want to go against Max."

All four of Max Verstappen's titles have been different from each other and showcased differing aspects of his toolkit inside the car to the watching world.

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Max Verstappen previews the 2025 season after difficult F1 Testing

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen hinted that he wasn't entirely happy with the RB21 during the three days of the official pre-season testing in Bahrain.

As per GPBlog, the 27-year-old spoke about the difficulties of the car and spoke about their chances in Melbourne:

"I don't think we can compete for victory in Melbourne, but hopefully we will be able to make improvements within a few races. It's never good enough of course, but I think we expected a very little bit more from it ourselves,"

With McLaren starting as the favorite for the upcoming season, Red Bull and Max Verstappen will have a task on their hands to develop the RB21 as quickly as possible to be competitive against the British team.