2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button believes Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are the combination best placed to end Red Bull’s recent dominance in 2024.
Despite rising one place to second in the Constructors’ standings last year, Mercedes trailed a sizeable 454 points behind Red Bull, who were victorious in 21 out of 22 races.
The German marque’s decision to retain the ‘zeropod’ solution at the start of 2023 backfired and resigned it to ending an F1 season winless for the first time since 2011.
But with Mercedes entering 2024 with a revised car concept, Button asserts that the Brackley squad’s past successes can’t be forgotten as it bids to rival Red Bull this year.
When asked on Sky Sports F1 which team is most likely to challenge Red Bull, Button elected to overlook the likes of Ferrari and ex-team McLaren in favour of Mercedes.
“When you look at the last 10 years in the sport, it’s Mercedes and Red Bull, so it would be Mercedes,” the Briton explained.
“I would love to say Ferrari, I would love to have them in the mix. You could say they were the closest competitor especially towards the end of the season, but I think Mercedes will have a good improvement. Whether it’s enough, I don’t know.”
Amid Mercedes’ struggles under this regulation cycle, Hamilton has not added to his record total of 103 victories since prevailing in Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
However, Button, who partnered the seven-time champion between 2010-12, is convinced that Hamilton is stronger than he’s ever been despite his protracted win drought.
“When you’ve won for so many years and then suddenly that’s taken away from you, it can work in two different ways,” he noted.
“One, you are just like: ‘Well, there’s no point anymore, I want to retire, I’ve been at the peak for so long and now I’ve not won a race in two years.’
“But also it can make you more hungry to get back to that, and Lewis is in that position right now I think.
“Lewis is as good as ever I would say in terms of his outright speed, but also now he seems much more comfortable in himself and confident in his ability, so he makes fewer mistakes.
“So he’s even better now than he was five or six years ago. That’s tough [for his opponents].
“If he gets a car that’s competitive enough to fight for victories, when someone’s that strong and that confident in themselves it’s difficult to beat, as you can see with Max Verstappen right now.”
