Home > Motor Sports > All Brawn and no Schumacher: Formula 1 king Button just can't win
by David Bronstein on 16 November 2009
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Jenson Button could be forgiven for looking outside his Monaco apartment and wondering if he really is the new Formula 1 world champion.
Since the British driver confirmed the title in Brazil a few weeks ago, there has, quite frankly, been little said. It's as if his title has been somehow swept under the carpet by the hierachy that is the FIA.
I'm quite sure that at Brawn HQ, the celebration party went on for weeks - but there seems to be a feeling in the paddock that the praise should be going to Ross Brawn and not Button.
It didn't help Button's cause, however, that he finished the second half of the season consistantly grabbing a point here a point there. But he had done all the hard work in the first half.
Indeed, at one point we were led to believe that Button and his machine would dominate the 2009 season like Michael Schumacher in his glory years at the beginning of the decade.
Stirling Moss was first to attack. Days after Button had won the championship, he didn't even rate the Englishman in his top five drivers of the year. This statement coming from someone who has always stood close and supported his countrymen.
No, Moss thought the fastest driver was the young German Sebastian Vettel. While he may have had a point, the timing was, to say the least, a little off.
The FIA had their own story. Max Mosley, ruling the sport with an iron-clenched fist, stood down only to be replaced by Ferrari-loving Jean Todt.
There does seem to have been no time for Button's celebration. So from an English point of view, is this a damnation for the sport?
Button was supposed to be all washed up coming into the 2009 season. He was, to put it mildly, a journeyman. But the car, alas the car, was quick. Are the public waking up and smelling the coffee?
Put a rookie or a journeyman in the quickest car and it's a guaranteed championship. Is Joe Bloggs sitting at home overweight supping coke and eating pizza thinking, "Send me out around the world I'll show 'em - at least in a Brawn car"?
For this, dear people, is the first time I can remember when a non-favourite at the beginning of the season has gone on and claimed the title.
Perhaps if Brawn hadn't existed and Button was paired with, say, Kimi Raikkonen or Lewis Hamilton and had gone on to win it, he would have been praised to the high mountains and back again.
Button will now be looking forward to the faux pas which is the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Because he is favourite for that title. Or is he?
Comments (5)
by A Wyatt on November 16, 2009
Sorry, but Button IS a journeyman and people will not believe he is the second coming just because biased journalists say so again and again. I think I would take Stirling Moss's word for it more than a British journalist's. I hope Jessica Ennis wins SPOTY - she is a true sportswoman, not someone who only won because she was in a monster of a machine at the beginning of the year. And she isn't as insufferably smug either.
by Anon Anon on November 16, 2009
The truth is, Jenson Button is an average driver who got lucky and got the best car when the other teams had really bad bad cars. Its not hard to win when you are racing against yourself
by Greg Varkonyi on November 16, 2009
The writer must be much too young if he is to say that no underdog has ever won the F1 crown... KEKE ROSBERG did it whilst winning only 1 race!!! And you can't even say he was consistent that year (1 disqualification, 3 non finishes, 2 finishes outside of points)... Fact of the matter is Button was dominant in the first half of the season and then Brawn lost ground to the others in the second half... This IS a technical sport, so of course the cars' strength would count... Sorry to bring the news, but the driver that has to be applauded for an unbelievable season is Alonso... That Renault was clearly a piece of sh**, yet he still managed to finish in the points in most races... Same for Raikonnen and Massa in that awful Ferrari. Replace Button with some random nobody (like say Luca Badoer) and Brawn would not have gotten a point with that car...
And if the others were crap, then Button would still be racing his teammate, who has the same car as he does... Or is there a conspiracy theory brewing here???
by JML on November 17, 2009
It's funny how similar the F1 and WRC Championships fights were this year. Jensen dominated the beginning of the season much like Sebastian Loeb then it fell apart midway for both of them. Luckily for each they were still able to pull it off. The only difference is that Loeb has more than proven his dominance in WRC unlike Button in F1.
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