'Verstappen reminds me of Hamilton' says Button

2009 Formula One world champion Jenson Button has revealed that Max Verstappen reminds him a lot of a younger Lewis Hamilton. Button, who won the Drivers' Championship with Brawn, and was team-mates with Hamilton at McLaren, spoke on Sky Sports' 'F1 Champions' after qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix about the similarities between the two drivers.

Verstappen and Hamilton are locked in an intense title fight that will be decided in Sunday's race, and after qualifying it's certainly 1-0 to the Dutchman having secured pole position.

The Red Bull man's driving style has come into question recently, but Button admitted it reminds him of when Hamilton was coming though. 

"I think looking at Max, he reminds me of Lewis when Lewis came into Formula One and when he was in the first few years of his career - quite an aggressive driving style. I always used to look at his data, and think ‘I don't know how he's so quick’. You know he’d come to the corner, hit the brake pedal really hard, hit the throttle really hard on the exit, and do everything through the steering wheel.

"It feels that Max is driving with that aggressive style now, and Lewis has the experience on his side and he's tuned his style and the way that he is inside the car and outside the car. But it feels that Max is just being Max. Max doesn't change, he’s just this super quick guy in the car and he's always super quick."

The 2016 champion, and another of Hamilton's former team-mates, Nico Rosberg added that Hamilton has been forced to alter his style this season in order to combate Verstappen. "I think Lewis this year because of Max had to re-tune his style because he's become, you know, really quite careful and measured with the years. Being used to delivering these championships but this year suddenly I think he's had to reengineer some aggressiveness back into it to really get the elbows out again against Max which has also been awesome to watch."