A key to Jenson Button’s success last season was his smart relationship with technical members of the McLaren team.<\/p>\n
That is the claim of Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was uncharacteristically beaten to the chequered flag as his team’s most successful driver in 2011.<\/p>\n
Despite criticism that he was entering “the lion’s den” by becoming Hamilton’s teammate in 2010, 31-year-old Button has been hailed “excellent” by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo after trailing only world champion Sebastian Vettel in the points standings last year.<\/p>\n
Fellow Briton Hamilton, meanwhile, had a tumultuous season on and off the track, trailing Button by the end of the year by 43 points.<\/p>\n
“Jenson is very quick and he’s gathered a strong team of technicians around him,” London’s Telegraph quotes Hamilton as having told La Gazzetta dello Sport this week.<\/p>\n
“I’d like to be ahead of him all the time, and I’m not happy if the opposite happens.<\/p>\n
“However, psychologically it’s absolutely not a problem.\u00a0 Besides, he’s an open and cheerful guy who I get along with.\u00a0 It would be nice to fight for the 2012 championship with him — that’s just up to McLaren,” added Hamilton.<\/p>\n
The Mercedes-powered team had a less than ideal start to 2011, experimenting with and then abandoning just before the first race a highly-complicated exhaust system.<\/p>\n
Hamilton thinks Red Bull’s 2012 car will again set the benchmark.<\/p>\n
“It will be up to us to be able to surpass it,” said the 2008 world champion.\u00a0 “From what I’ve seen, however, the new McLaren seems a lot better than last year’s.”<\/p>\n
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