Jenson Button: Favorites remain the same

Jenson Button shared his predictions for the upcoming season, which starts this weekend in Bahrain: the 2009 world champion is betting on Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

“Max is very good at showing high speeds as soon as he brings the car onto the track, and the way Red Bull have built their RB19 suits him,” Jenson said in an interview with London’s Metro newspaper. – The team will set it something like this: “The settings are optimal, the downforce is the same, and if you change the balance of the chassis, the downforce will decrease.”

And Max just gets behind the wheel and goes. It handles excellently, even if the car requires a tricky approach. Max definitely has to be considered a favourite.

But of course, if the car is too difficult to drive, it can interfere with Red Bull. But we always dream that three teams will fight for wins, which is rare – maybe this year will be the case?

If you’re ahead of Lewis one weekend, he’s just going to be stronger the next weekend, so I’m not afraid Hamilton won’t be able to recoup. At the end of last season he spent confidently. Although he failed to win the race in Brazil, victory went to his teammate, George Russell, but there were reasons for that.

I think Lewis will be great from the start of the season. His thirst for wins has grown stronger as he has been winning races and championships for so many years, so last year’s failures were a blow to his ego.

The Ferrari team was not very consistent last year and not all of them were good with the strategy. But I’m sure they addressed these issues and learned a lot last season. I think they will go very quickly. We can say that Charles Leclerc was more stable than his partner last year, but who knows how it will turn out this time. It seems to me that this season is very important for Carlos, who has to show his best.

George Russell’s situation is very different from Lando Norris’s at McLaren. He has a very experienced partner, a rider who has achieved more than all of us, so George will be under a lot of pressure.

Last season he managed to get ahead of Lewis and now a lot is expected of him, but I think he can handle it. George is well prepared, he has the right attitude, he knows his strengths and weaknesses, he works hard on himself and I will follow the rivalry of the Mercedes drivers with interest.

Lando is in a very different situation. His partner at McLaren was a rookie, a young driver, but very fast. At the same time, Oscar will have a hard time, because he will make his debut in a more or less competitive team, which will be played by a very strong racer. This situation can be described as follows: he was thrown into the water and he either learns to swim or drowns. That’s why I want to see what results the McLaren drivers will show and which of them will be stronger.

The top teams have somewhat limited time for research in the wind tunnel, moreover, the budget cap does not allow them to spend huge sums, and all this should exacerbate the rivalry in the championship. But this year, the advantage of the top teams still remains. Maybe the rest will catch up next season, but in 2023 the favorites will be the same.”