Jenson Button is a better driver than Lewis Hamilton, according to Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion who is hosting this weekend's British grand prix at Silverstone.

Hill, the president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, which owns the revamped Silverstone circuit, did not want to be rushed into a judgment. This thoughtful man stroked his grey goatee beard and screwed up his face in an agony of indecision as he looked skywards. But when he was forced to choose there was little doubt that he rated Button, the current world champion, ahead of Hamilton, the 2008 title winner.

"I think Lewis has got a little bit more to learn tactically than Jenson," he said of the McLaren team-mates. "He is still very young and learning but his approach is more impetuous, which works sometimes and doesn't at others. Whether Lewis will mature or not … he is bound to be maturing all the time but whether he learns to be circumspect when he needs to be, I don't know if that is his style. I don't know if he will do that."

When it came to Button, Hill had no reservations. "I wouldn't be surprised if Jenson won the championship again," he said. "He will absorb more as a competitor and maintain his equilibrium perhaps better than Lewis. I think it would be wrong to assume either would be that easy [to race against] but I think Jenson has perhaps got the slightly more relaxed approach."

Hill was speaking at the famous circuit which launched the Formula One world championship 60 years ago and will stage the British grand prix for the next 17 years following a £5m refit. "Lewis has got the mind-set of a driver who sees the normal state of affairs as him being first and the rest being second, which is great," he said. "I think that is what you would expect from a competitor. But perhaps Jenson is a little bit more opportunistic, and slightly more mature and realistic about things."

Button's switch to McLaren has impressed Hill. "I have been surprised by Jenson and the way he has handled it at McLaren," he said. "I am really pleased. He has got enormous talent. His career really was almost derailed in the first couple of seasons in F1.

"I think he has added something to McLaren. McLaren need someone like Jenson who has got a laid-back but seriously competitive and well-balanced attitude. He is someone who seems to be relishing having made the right decision and being in the right place, against everyone else's better judgment.

"He has proved everyone wrong by going to McLaren. He has shown he has quality in depth as a driver and [shown] his maturity. He is adding something else, which is really important and sometimes too easily forgotten – his attitude to the sport and his personality."

Hill feels that the obvious goodwill between the two McLaren drivers could be tested if the race for the championship goes to the wire. "It will be bitterly fought with no quarter given at all," he said.

When asked to compare the two drivers' styles he added: "I think they have got two totally different approaches. I think you've got a kind of Senna-esque driver [Hamilton] and a Prost-like driver [Button]. It is a bit like the tortoise and the hare. But Jenson is always there in with a shout. He will pick up opportunities when he needs to, as he showed when he won the championship. He put his foot down, took risks, and went through. He can do that but he is not at his maximum the whole time, which is what Lewis seems to be and sometimes Lewis, when he is at his maximum, will drop out. There will be a hiccup somewhere.

"I think he wants to be maximum attack. The race here two years ago, in the wet, he took maximum risks and it paid off and it was just incredible in very difficult conditions. You are not going to see that from Jenson, although he can be just as brilliant in the wet in a different way."

But Hill was reluctant to pick a title winner. "I don't think it is possible to call at the moment," he said. "The standard of competition in F1, with the crop of drivers we have, is unquestionably of a higher standard than it's ever been."

Until now the 1960s – when Hill's father, Graham, won his two world titles – was considered to be the golden age of British motor sport. But Hill added: "The professionalism of the drivers is greater than it's ever been. It has just been on simmer and now it is going to start to boil over. The preliminaries are over and from now on the clock is definitely ticking. You are going to run out of opportunities. If you are not in the frame now you are going to be watching it slip out of your fingers."