Button names Red Bull's most likely F1 challenger

2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button believes that Mercedesis the team most likely to offer a challenge to Red Bull this year.Red Bull enjoyed a dominant campaign last season, winning all butone race en route to double championship success. The MiltonKeynes-based squad are favourites ahead of the new campaign as itsadvantage over the competition with the RB19 allowed it to switchfocus onto its successor earlier than rival squads. When asked bySky Sports which team is most likely to take the fight to Red Bull,he said: “Mercedes. "When you look at the last 10 years in thesport, it's Mercedes and Red Bull, so it would be Mercedes. “Iwould love to say Ferrari, I would love to have them in the mix.You could say they were the closest competitor especially towardsthe end of the season, but I think Mercedes will have a goodimprovement [for 2024]. Whether it's enough, I don't know."'Hamilton hungry for return to success' Mercedes enjoyed its owndominant run of success before new technical regulations wereintroduced in 2022. The squad has slipped back in the pecking orderever since, with seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton's windrought stretching back to the end of the 2021 season. However,Hamilton has committed himself to the Mercedes project as last yearhe signed an extension to race until at least the end of 2025."When you've won for so many years and then suddenly that's takenaway from you, it can work in two different ways," said Button.“One, you are just like 'well, there's no point anymore, I want toretire, I've been at the peak for so long and now I've not won arace in two years'. “But also it can make you more hungry to getback to that, and Lewis is in that position right now I think."Lewis is as good as ever I would say in terms of his outrightspeed, but also now he seems much more comfortable in himself andconfident in his ability, so he makes fewer mistakes. So he's evenbetter now than he was five or six years ago. "That's tough [forhis rivals]. If he gets a car that's competitive enough to fightfor victories, when someone's that strong and that confident inthemselves it's difficult to beat, as you can see with MaxVerstappen right now.”