MONZA, Italy -- Lewis Hamilton paid tribute to the "extraordinary" Jenson Button after hearing his former McLaren teammate will step back from Formula One in 2017.
Button is being replaced by Stoffel Vandoorne at McLaren next year, though he is on a deal which could include a return to a race drive in 2018 if the team wants him back. The announcement was made on Saturday, just days after Felipe Massa confirmed his retirement at the end of the year in the Monza paddock.
Joking about the weekend of announcements Hamilton, whose media session started just as Button's news was filtering through social media from further up the paddock, kicked off his session with a smile.
"Ok guys, well I want to start this session with an announcment of my own.... I'm also retiring," he said, laughing.
Button became Hamilton's teammate the year after winning the 2009 world championship for Brawn. The pair stayed at McLaren together until 2012, when Hamilton departed for Mercedes.
Hamilton says he remembers watching Button, whose career began at the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, when he was a child.
"Jenson's been an extraordinary British champion. I remember watching him when he first got to Formula One on a weekend with my dad, eating bacon sarnies, watching Jenson doing what I was dreaming to do.He's done 17 years now, a long, long stint in this sport, but what he has given to it is fantastic.
"We were joking in the drivers' briefing the other day. Max (Verstappen) was sitting next to me, along with Jenson and Felipe, and Jenson told Max 'You were just one-year-old when I first got to Formula One'. That was kind of crazy.
"But Jenson is still young, still healthy, still fit, so I wish him all the best for the future."
Button is the only man other than Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel to have won an F1 world championship since Kimi Raikkonen did so in 2007.