I think Heikki has improved significantly since his McLaren and while Hamilton is probably slightly quicker, I think it would be better for McLaren's sake if they were to focus more on Button while Heikki is close behind.
The thing we seem time and time again in F1 is the unknown. Who knows what'll happen next year. Winter 2008, who'd guess Button would win 2009 in a "Brawn". 2010, who'd think Vettel could pull it back, from Webber, Only to see Alonso steal it, and then loose it at the end. This year, utter domination by vettel, maybe less unlikely but come the start of the season would you put money on it. F1 is a strange sport and we never know. Hamilton may have lost his head a little, but his talent is all still there, maybe to be shown next year...
Most certainly yes to the first point. He has got back the confidence that drained away in his time at McLaren, but it is a big thing to say he would do better than Hamilton. He is beating Trulli, but not by that much.
Yup... it really is a strange sport. The form of both team and driver can fluctuate quickly , so who knows who might come out of the gate first in 2012. Who knows.... it may even be a Schumacher revival for all we know. The boards would be colorful if that were the case.
Interesting article, but Lewis has won a championship with MCLAREN, and for that reason everyone in the garage will always believe in his ability. Jenson has had a great season, but to only have 43 more points and same number of wins is a very very scary statistic for JB considering Lewis has had the worst season in his racing career. McLaren have the best driver line up on the grid so there's no need for change.
Maybe a lot of my opinion is due to my belief that teams are better off having a (lenient) no.1 and no.2 driver - so the drivers don't take points away from each other and cost each other WDC. This is why drivers like Rosberg, Sutil and Kovi would be good alongside button . Button is quick and consistently enough to beat them, but they wouldn't hurt Button's progress in the WDC and they'd be decent enough to score a lot of points for the constructors.
Do you really think a comment like this isn't a dig at Vettel? and what has 2007 got to do with anything?
But the gap would of been bigger if not for the 2 Mechanical DNF's he had caused by McLaren themselves. Though Lewis has now had a mechanical DNF, it would be fair to say Jenson was on target for a "possible" 60+ point gap to Lewis.
It's better to have a clear number 1 in a championship fight so that you don't cripple your own efforts... I'm just not 100% convinced that I'd have Button as my number 1. He is in top form these days, no doubt... but is it enough? Either way though... I'd say that Button has silenced his critics.
Well he often outperforms Hamilton these days and imo he's not as good as Vettel and Alonso but he's the next best thing - so if McLaren give him the right car, he is a serious threat to rival teams. I can't say the same for Hamilton anymore.
Hell, i dislike Hamilton, but replacing him due to one down season is preposterous. On his day he is unbeatable.
A shame but true in part, though Ferrari seem to suffer more than most in this respect. McLaren and Red Bull try to run two top drivers, but you are correct that it can be counter-productive if they take points off each other, especially if they are not totally dominant. It woudl have made sod all difference this year such was Vettel's overall superiority.
I think you might be being a little premature. People wrote off Button years ago and look how he has turned his career around.
Like Kimi then - and we know what happened to him. It's not very impressive if "his day" only comes around two or three times a year. This season to me is rather telling about Hamilton's future. He might be less error-prone in future or whatever, but the high deg tyres do not suit him and Pirelli show no indications of going more conservative - which plays into the hands of Vettel, Button and Alonso whilst hurting Hamilton and Webber. Also the fact that Button was the better driver this season means that Button will undoubtedly now have more input into next years car. I'm no expert but Button and Hamilton have completely different driving styles.
