Jenson Button is confident Mercedes will give Lewis Hamilton “equal treatment” during the 2024 Formula 1 season after George Russell was given the team's only new front wing at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Hamilton was consistently in the top three during practice and topped the opening session on Friday but had to settle for seventh on the grid, 0.078 seconds behind team-mate Russell.
Jenson Button discusses Lewis Hamilton's situation at Mercedes
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
This marks the seventh time in the eight races of the 2024 F1 season that Russell has started on the grid ahead of Hamilton.
Hamilton revealed after the session that he was already “automatically” two-tenths of a second behind in qualifying for Monte Carlo, with Russell the only one competing with the team's upgraded front wing this weekend.
He told Sky F1: “We've worked really hard to improve this car and it's felt great from the start and we've clearly been competitive both yesterday and this morning.”
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“We're not going to make any drastic changes or anything like that.
“The team has been working hard at the factory making upgrades over the last two races and updates for this weekend, but we only have one thing and that's what George has.
“George has upgraded components so I expected it would be hard to beat him in qualifying, but it's great to see that we're bringing the upgrades we've made.
“But then when you get to qualifying, you don’t understand it, you already know when you get to qualifying you’re going to lose two tenths of a second.
“It's certainly frustrating and I don't have any answers at the moment.
“Nothing has changed in the way I drive. The laps have been really good. There's just something missing.”
Hamilton, who announced in February that he would sign a multi-year contract with Ferrari for 2025, insisted he “doesn't expect” to qualify ahead of Russell for the majority of this season.
The seven-time world champion's comments have raised speculation that Mercedes could give Russell priority for upgrades as it prepares to part ways with Hamilton.
But Hamilton's former McLaren team-mate Button, speaking as a Sky F1 pundit in Monaco, insisted Mercedes would continue to offer equal treatment to its drivers until F1's end in 2024.
Asked if it was inevitable that Mercedes would lean towards Russell, Button said: “I'd be surprised if that happened.”
“With what Lewis has done for this team, it's obvious that the team would give him a car to fight for the championship, but I don't think so. I don't think that's going to happen.”
“They may not tell you what the parts are or how fast they will be, but they will treat you equally.”
Speaking to media, including PlanetF1.com, on the morning Hamilton's move to Ferrari over the winter was confirmed, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff insisted the team would be “transparent and fair” ahead of Hamilton's move.
But he acknowledged that both teams and drivers were likely to face “new challenging situations” during the 2024 F1 season.
He said: “As team principal, and everyone at Mercedes, what has always been our aim is to be transparent and fair, and 2024 will be no different in that regard.”
“In accordance with our principles and racing intent, we [racing]We respect that. And I [ensure] The drivers will respect that.
“In terms of future developments, I think this is something we need to look at.
“The rules will remain broadly the same and with regard to 2025 we will assess later in the season what that means in terms of technical information.
“But that's not an issue for me at all. There are engineers who leave our team to go to other teams and the notice period can be as short as six months. So I have no doubt about Lewis' honesty in terms of sharing information in that respect.”
“I just want to be sure that this is a successful season, a successful season for both drivers and for Mercedes and we're all going to do everything we can to achieve that.”
“It's certainly a new situation for Lewis and the team, but really focusing on the short term, this is a racing team deployed to run a product and it doesn't have a major impact on everything that's going to happen going forward on the development side.”
“I am always interested in new challenging situations and am trying to balance my interest in Mercedes for 2024 with my interest in a driver for 2025.
“How we manage it will be discussed openly at the outset and will always come to a positive outcome between us.”
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