Hamilton urged team to sign Button

Speaking to the British print media during yesterday's McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25 launch, Hamilton said Button had always been his first choice partner for 2010.

"Something you won't know is that I actually called Martin and said 'What about Jenson?', which was before they had negotiations," said Hamilton.

"At the time I was calling them and asking them, 'What's going on? I keep reading all these different stories about different drivers. What's happening?'.

"Fortunately I would be told who they were talking to, but I had absolutely no input into who they would pick. So I would say, 'Have you spoken to this person? Have you spoken to Jenson?'.

"And why Jenson? Because he is the best driver there is, and they wanted to get the best driver possible.

"I just wanted to find out because people kept asking me as to who was going to be my team-mate."

Hamilton emphasised that he had no desire to see former team-mate Heikki Kovalainen leave McLaren, but had got the impression the team wanted to make a change.

"I was happy with the team-mate I had, but it seemed like they were looking for someone else," said the former champion.