Having warned his team to seriously up its game next season, or else, Jenson Button has turned his attention to fellow-Briton Lewis Hamilton, who, according to the Honda star, may have blown his best chance of winning the title.

"He is a great driver," he told the Mail on Sunday, "but there are lots of great drivers in Formula One who did not have his package."

Button believes that 2007 might have been Hamilton's best chance of taking the World Championship crown, and warns that his rival might never have a similar opportunity again.

"What would worry me is the lost opportunity," said the 2006 Hungarian GP winner. "You can't say in my sport: 'Oh well, I only missed out by a point so next year I'll go one better.' It doesn't work out like that.

"He should be sick as a dog because another chance like that might not come round again," added Button, who, having scored 40 points in the last seven races of the 2006 season, scored one if the first eight races of 2007, and therefore knows all about F1's swings and roundabouts.