F1 News

Britain’s second favourite F1 driver, Jenson Button, has come out of the woodwork to remind the fickle public of his existence. His comments in the press today about Honda challenging for the 2009 championship must really be seen as a declaration of his own intent rather than an assessment of his team’s genuine potential.

Even if we take “fighting for the championship” in 2009 to mean ‘regularly winning races’, the only way this would be possible would be if Honda’s 2008 car was at least as good as, say, BMW’s was in 2007 - clearly the best of the rest but without a win to its name. For Honda to make such a step up this year, even with Ross Brawn at the helm, is unrealistic.

So why is Jenson making such proclamations? Drivers who plug around in the midfield, especially when they’re paid vast sums of money (as Button is) can be seen to be making up the numbers, particularly if they aren’t even the most successful driver in their own country anymore. But 2008 is a new slate for Honda, now that they have Ross ‘the Miracle Worker’ Brawn in charge, and Jenson is keen to reassert himself as a motivated team player (one that doesn’t call his car “a complete dog”), who has faith in his team and who hasn’t turned into Ralf Schumacher. So when Button says “we have to be fighting for the world championship” he means that he personally must be, or at least he wants to be, and if he can’t, could someone from a better team please come and release him from Honda and get him back to where he thinks he belongs?

Get Jenson Button merchandise from Grand Prix Legends

• Also on F1 News today - Water pistols at dawn for the new Force India drivers… but does anyone really care?

Share on Facebook

Stumble it!