Jenson Button has revealed that he was concerned Sir Lewis Hamilton would be given preferential treatment ahead of him joining the Woking-based team in 2010.
Button moved to McLaren just after winning the 2009 F1 Championship with Brawn GP, and he raced alongside Hamilton for three years.
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Speaking on the The High Performance Podcast, Button has revealed that he made it clear he wanted to have equal treatment and be allowed to race Hamilton from the get-go.
“I remember walking into McLaren and the first thing I said before I met anyone… I spoke to Martin Whitmarsh, I spoke to Ron Dennis and I said, ‘My first question is, is this Lewis’ team, am I going to have equal treatment here? Because if I’m not, I don’t want to be here’,” Button said.
“And they said, ‘yes, everything will be 100 per cent equal between both of the drivers’. I said ‘now I can start’ and then I walked in, met everyone, and got a pretty good rapport with the team very quickly.
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“My dad would walk in. He was always in the background. He would speak to the engineers.
“It was quite a cold atmosphere and he made it a lot more friendly. And you know my manager was great, my physio, my PR man.
“I think it just made everyone a bit more relaxed in the team and drivers weren’t these alien people that you can’t talk to within a team.”
On the same podcast, Button revealed that his decision to join McLaren didn’t go down well at Brawn GP.
Specifically, he said that team principal Ross Brawn thought he was crazy for joining McLaren and becoming Hamilton’s team-mate, while Nick Fry shouted at him upon finding out about his move.
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