Jenson Button, Formula One world champion

How many people have dreamt that their name replaces Jenson's? Millions I reckon, me included.

Who wouldnt want to be formula one world champion, the man who is a better racer than you, a better driver, the man who can drive a car faster than you. THE FASTEST RACE DRIVER IN THE WORLD!

But is that all there is too it?

Well depending on your stance on formula one, the answer is yes, or no.

My answer is no. Formula One is a team game, gone are the days when you could turn up and race your own car and even they those who did, didnt win.

Today you need a team around you, but brilliantly, the driver still counts.

Jenson and Rubens had the same car all year long, yet the difference in points was 18 points, in the same car thats a horrendous difference.

Sebastian Vettel gained more points than Rubens, but not Jenson, yet Rubens and jenson had the same car. So the difference was the driver.end of.

From March 2009 to November 2009 Jenson Button drove the best races any driver probably drove in any competition throughout the world, and deserves to be formula one world champion.

HOWEVER!

Sadly I dont think JB will ever be thought of in the same league as fellow world champs, mansell, hamilton,hunt and many overs. Why?

You tell me a Jenson button memory from before 2009. You tell me something he did that made you smile, that made you proud to be a formula one fan, or a british formula one fan.

It is not necessarily Button's fault, but formula one is a show, and the whole point of formula one is the fans.

Those who care, and those who really love formula one, want certain things from a driver, they want drama (mansell) they want action (Gilles Villeneuve) they want never say die (Hamilton) and they want charisma and attitude (Hunt).

Where is Button going to fit in any of this?

Nowhere, he has no win or lose attitude, no never say die charisma, yes his overtakes this season were quite frankly sublime and brilliant, but the media never promoted these in the same way they promoted Hamilton or Mansell. Why? Because Jenson has never been the typical british driver, the underdog, the struggler.

He was always the guy who was alright but often in a crap car, and when he got a great car, people didnt know how to take it and understand it and just assumed it was the car. That was the mainstream interpretation. Yet sadly, only those who looked deeper will see how good Jenson really is, so accurate, so precise, so in touch with the feelings of the car.

But does Button capture the general publics imagination and hearts like Mansell and Hamilton? Has Button ever loved and lost? Has he ever had the world title in his grasp? Only to lose it in the cruellest fashion one can imagine? No.

Britain takes pride in the underdog, the man who nearly made it, not the multi world champion. Hamilton, Mansell, Hunt, Graham and Damon Hill, embodied the british spirit, try try and try again, and eventually, you will succeed.

I feel here it is important to mention Stirling Moss and David Coulthard, two men who were just too gentlemanly to become world champions, despite possessin the ability.

But for Button many will feel it has been given to him by the simple fact that Brawn ran a car engineered, designed and developed by a Honda squad who pumped some £300million into the car.

So in ten or twenty years from now, when people reminisce this period of formula one racing. Who will they think higher of? Hamilton? or Button?

Feel free to contribute your own answer, but my answer has been driving a mclaren all his life and I suspect will do so for the rest of his career.

Thanks for reading.

Rich Marsh