Eddie Irvine has controversially predicted that Jenson Button will come to regret his decision to quit the Brawn F1 squad and join Lewis Hamilton at McLaren.
Irvine, who was Michael Schumacher’s team-mate at Ferrari for four years from 1996 to 1999, said: “Jenson has entered the lion’s den. It was madness of him to move.
"I think he is going to get murdered. It’s the worst decision he [Jenson] could have made. The only reason I can think of is that he did not want to stay at Brawn with [Nico] Rosberg, who is not as highly rated as Lewis, but might be just as quick.
"Jenson may have thought that it's better to get beaten by Lewis than get beaten by Nico."
Irvine continued his criticism of Button’s move by saying: “Rubens Barrichello is a good little peddler and murdered Jenson in the second half of last season. Michael [Schumacher] never got murdered by anyone. Lewis came into his first year in F1 and beat a double world champion in Fernando Alonso – that's a class act.
"If you look at Jenson's career, Ralf Schumacher beat him, Giancarlo Fisichella beat him and Rubens beat him. There are too many races where he hasn't performed, to say he's at the level of any of those guys.”
