Button irritated to be questioned about Hamilton

While the Indian Grand Prix was once again marred by an incident between Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton – for which the Brazilian was deemed responsible by the stewards and received a drive-through penalty – Jenson Button, the 2008 champion’s teammate, couldn’t escape new questions from journalists seeking his opinion on the matter: “I don’t give a damn!” Button retorted, visibly annoyed by these recurring questions about his teammate. “If you want to do an interview with me, about me, that’s fine, but I don’t want to be asked questions about others.”

Already, after the Singapore Grand Prix, the McLaren driver had stated in the columns of the Guardian that he had no advice to give to his teammate following the incident that had already occurred with Felipe Massa: « We don’t talk to each other when we are away from the circuits. When the race is over, we go spend time with people who truly know us personally and not just as race drivers. »

After the Indian Grand Prix, the Briton, however, was willing to talk about his current situation: « If you have a teammate like Lewis, who is incredibly fast, it means a lot to finish ahead of him, yes. He’s also a world champion, so he’s not just anyone. No matter what people say, we all want to beat our teammate, otherwise, you won’t have a car fast enough to beat the other top drivers. So you work well with him off-track and in the car, of course, you want to beat him, it’s a real challenge to beat him, but that’s what I wanted by coming here. I really wanted to see where I truly stood compared to Lewis. »

The Briton, currently second in the championship, holds a 38-point lead over his teammate and therefore seems almost assured of surpassing him in the final standings, barring mechanical problems, a first for Lewis Hamilton since his debut in 2007. Jenson Button, who seems to have achieved his goal, doesn’t consider it an end in itself: “It would be nice to finish ahead of Lewis, but if I can win another race, it would mean so much more to me. I already have three and would love another in Abu Dhabi or Brazil. We probably have a better chance in Brazil. Quite a few times this season, especially in the last few races, I’ve been the closest guy to Sebastian when he’s winning.” The McLaren driver is also the only one since the summer break to have beaten Sebastian Vettel in a race, during the Japanese Grand Prix.

After stating in the post-race press conference that second place in the World Drivers’ Championship wasn’t as important as people might think, he admits, however, that finishing as vice-champion would mean something: It would mean that I beat one of the Red Bulls and Fernando in a Ferrari. When Fernando is in sync with his car, it’s great to beat him because he is super-fast, and my teammate is as well.

If he acknowledges that he had better races than Lewis in the second half of the season, Jenson Button points out, however, that his teammate had phenomenal races where [he] couldn’t keep up. The McLaren driver also believes that Hamilton will be strong next year: Sometimes, we wish he wasn’t so fast, but that’s the challenge. He will definitely be there next year, there’s no doubt about that, and we will have good battles, and you will have two British drivers fighting for the title.