Many people scoff when you say Jenson Button is a deserving world champ. He won because his Brawn had the nifty double diffuser; anyone could have won the championship in that car they like to say. Though they hardly ever mention how he fought to maintain his position on top of the standings as other teams caught up to the once invincible Brawn.
They also fail to remember his mammoth determination all those years in desperately slow cars and how he remained relentless in his pursuit of a championship dream. It is this determination and relentless spirit that culminated into one of the best drives of his F1 career and his tenth F1 victory, in Canada.
He was dead last on the track, made five pit stops, served a drive through penalty and survived two accidents. Many other drivers’ would have found it impossible to recover from a situation such as that. But not JB. All those years of scratching out fifteenth place finishes and driving the wheels off those hapless BARs have turned him into one hell of a fighter. Add to the fact his masterful way of driving on a drying track (his first race victory came in the same condition during the 2006 Hungarian Gp) and Jenson Button is far from unworthy, in anyone’s book.
Lewis ‘Banzai’ Hamilton would do well to take a few lessons from Button’s drive. Such as, don’t drive into a closing gap… or even that you can’t win the race in the first corner! Lewis is, at the moment, the Marco Simoncelli of F1 – huge potential being overshadowed by an overly aggressive state of mind. His aggression is out of control at this point in time. In fact, his driving is poor. Which is saying a lot considering the talent of the man. As the saying goes – you’re only as good as your last race. And he crashed… in the last two.
Jonathan Neale of McLaren curtly told BBC’s Ted Kravitz that they were not the first or the last team to have their teammate’s crash into each, a clear referral to Red Bull’s Turkey moment in 2010. Maybe they aren’t the first or last… but Johnno, you are the latest.
Seb Vettel is human after all! He definitely played it a bit too safe after the final safety car period. By failing to extend the gap and dropping a wheel onto a wet part of the track he gave Jenson Button the race win. But hindsight is always 20/20. Had he pushed to his absolute limit and binned the car we would all be calling him irresponsible and mumbling that second place is better than sticking it in the wall. Second place. Second place after making a mistake! That’s how bad his season is going at the moment – a mistake that last year would likely have pitched him off into the barriers in 2011 only results in him having to stand on the lower step of the podium. Add to that that he’s still sitting pretty with a sixty point lead and it’s hardly a disaster. Yes, it’s tough being Seb Vettel.