I have been saying this since last year right from the time Hamilton signed the contract with Mercedes. I said right then and there Mclaren were gonna struggle with Button as their number one driver. Even made a bet with F1boat that Lewis will finish higher than Button in the points table in 2013, whereas he was quite adamant it would be the other way around. I hope everything is alright with F1boat, as he's disappeared from the forum.

Of course Mclaren need to produce a good car, at least an equal or a competitive car, but at the moment they don't have a top tier driver to take it to the top step. Sorry Button or Perez fans, they are not top tier drivers. We will wait and see on Perez, as he has started to outqualify Button (something I again expected) but at this point he's not got the X factor. Sure, if you have a freakishly dominant car, any half decent driver can win the WDC, but that's not what Mclaren is producing now, is it?

Mclaren desperately NEED a top tier driver, plain and simple. Someone who can get the job done even if the car is not quite there, or someone who can hit the sweet spot with the setup more often than not. People always keep throwing the 2011 points table stat to put Button in a positive light, which is getting quite annoying now, and forget that there were plenty of races in 2010 and 2012 where Lewis was winning races or in a race winning position and Button was NOWHERE, not even in the top 5. It's like they weren't even watching the races. Yes, 2011 was a bad year for Lewis, and Button finished 2nd, BUT Button's 2nd was further from Vettel in terms of points than Hamilton's 4th was in 2012.

If we're really talking about stats, then they should look at these stats too:

Hamilton and Button

Hamilton v Button stats compared (highest respective tally in bold)

Qualifying

Faster qualifying time: Hamilton 44 / Button 14
Poles: Hamilton 9 / Button 1
Front rows: Hamilton: 23 / Button 9

Races

Wins: Hamilton 10 / Button 8
Podiums: Hamilton 22 / Button 25
Points finishes: Hamilton 45 / Button 47
DNFs: Hamilton 13!! / Button 8
Best race result (inc DNFs): Hamilton 32 / Button 26
Ahead in two-car finish: Hamilton 24 / Button 13

Championship

Overall points: Hamilton 657 / Button 672 (Hamilton has had 5 more DNFs, 3 mechanical failures while leading a race)
Seasons finished higher in standings: Hamilton 2 / Button 1
Highest championship placing: Hamilton 4th (2010, 2012) / Button 2nd (2011)
Very easy to quote total points without looking at DNFs.

As a team, you cannot expect your top driver to be a fair weather driver, only capable of winning when he has the perfect car under him. The rest of the time it's annoying whinge galore, whether it's no grip, no heat in tyres, understeer, oversteer or telling on his faster, more aggressive teammate to Uncle Titmarsh. This isn't a video game, this is real racing. You want an Alonso, Kimi, Lewis or a Vettel in your car to drag it to the top or squeeze performance out of it, not Button.