Dream Pairing At McLaren For 2010

One of the key talking points of this week other than the Thierry Henry handball that broke Irish hearts was the revelation that broke earlier in the week. The news that I am of course talking about is Jenson Button’s move to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, which means that the new world champion will be partnering the 2008 World Champion in Lewis Hamilton. It truly is a mouth watering prospect and the British Media already are hyping this as the best driver pairing in recent memory along with the Aryton Senna / Alain Prost pairing at McLaren in the late 1980’s.

As an F1 fan, it’s a move that i hope will work out wonders. Hopefully the 2010 season will be just as exciting as the second half of this year’s championship was with good competition amongst the cars throughout the whole grand prix weekend. McLaren ended last season well, partly due to the fact they were running KERS whilst everyone but Ferrari hadn’t bothered with it the whole season but also due to the fact the overall package had been improved. The second half of the season saw Hamilton produce some fine performances including two wins at Hungary and Singapore and a dominating performance in the season finale at Abu Dhabi before retiring whilst leading due to a brake problem.

Brawn on the other hand had a much harder end to the season, but when it really mattered Jenson got the results that he needed and rightfully claimed this year’s driver’s title. However towards the end of the season there were small rumours emerging that his future at Brawn was not 100% certain. Mercedes had obviously noticed the potential of the team and probably due to the controversies surrounding McLaren over the last couple of years (Spy-gate and Lie-gate notably) said that they would be thinking about investing in Brawn for 2010.

Obviously they were not just thinking about investing slightly into Brawn and giving them precedence over McLaren! After buying 75.1% of the team from Ross Brawn and Nick Fry earlier in the week it was announced that the team would be rebranded Mercedes Grand Prix. This is big move for the German manufacturer and is a clear intent that they want to go head to head with Ferrari to see who the best manufacturer is in the sport. Also it’s been rumoured that the powers that be at Mercedes want two German drivers running in the team. Nico Rosberg having left Williams is 99.9% certain to be one of the drivers for the team. Nick Heidfeld could be an option for the second seat and even today there’s talk that Michael Schumacher could come out of retirement to race for the team. Whether that’s true or not no-one knows, Eddie Jordan seems to think it could happen so it shouldn’t be ruled out at first.

But back to Button, why Mercedes wouldn’t want to keep him and have the Number 1 on their car seems abit strange as it would work wonders to have the World champion in their car alongside the improving Rosberg, but that’s F1 for you. It’s not about the money as supposedly Button is earning less at McLaren than he would at Mercedes as he claims he’s moving there for the challenge to go there and beat Hamilton at his own job. That challenge is being questioned by former F1 greats such as Jackie Stewart and John Watson who claim that it will be awfully difficult for Jenson to beat Lewis over the course of the season, because Lewis has such a good relationship with the team.

I can fully understand their views and it’s easy to think back to 2007 and how Fernando Alonso’s relationship with the team turned sour after Lewis matched him throughout that season. However Button is a different character to Alonso and is more laid back and down to earth than the Spaniard. That’s not to say that Alonso isn’t the better driver as i think he is, but the fact that Jenson and Lewis appear to get on well should hopefully mean that there are not any problems like that for 2010.

Hamilton appears to be pleased that Lewis has moved to the team. In a way it will bring out the best in him and I think it will make him a better driver having got the new darling of the grid alongside him. Button will match him for pace and I think could surprise Lewis early on in the season if he gets a chance to. Hamilton learnt much as a driver and as a person during 2009, after starting the year badly due to the ‘Lie-gate’ scandal and having to drive a poor car, he improved as the year went on and was probably the guy to beat towards the end of the season. As a person he’ll know that some parts of the media will want there to be a breakdown at McLaren next season so I’m sure he’ll just do his talking in the car where it really matters. The same applies for Button who has a good relationship with the media and has always been praised for his smooth ‘old-school’ driving that was so fluent at times this season.

In conclusion, it’s a great move for British Motorsport which puts our best two drivers in F1 head to head in one of the top teams in the sport. McLaren as I’ve said before ended the season well and should be challenging for race wins next season. It’s a challenge for Button who will be in a different environment to the one at Brawn/Honda where he was familiar with and the move to McLaren will bring pressure to him. The pressure of being the World Champion, the pressure to perform to win races and the most important pressure to beat Hamilton over the season and prove the doubters wrong. As a big fan of F1 and both drivers, it should be interesting to see how they do next season and how McLaren manage the two drivers.

If you were to ask me which driver I think will finish higher in the driver’s standings, I would say Hamilton but I don’t think it will be by much and think both drivers will do well next season. Whether either will win the Championship or not is another question as I feel that a rejuvenated Fernando Alonso at Ferrari - who will themselves will be looking to bounce back after a poor season – is probably the favourite for the title next year as he aims to put himself back on the top of the sport.

Posted by Adam Dennehey, SportTrades