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

Why Brawn And Jenson Are Worthy Champions

SportTrades Adam Dennehey Writing

With it being almost a week since Jenson Button and Brawn clinched the Formula 1 World Drivers and Constructors titles. As I'm a big Formula 1 fan i felt that it would be appropriate to write about the small subject of whether Button and Brawn are worthy champions or not. The reason for this is that in the build up to the Brazilian Grand Prix there was a small question emerging about the fact that Jenson’s results since the Turkish GP in June have not been as good as results earlier in the season. But does that theory mean that Jenson and the team are not worthy of what they've won this season - no it does not!

Jenson’s performances at the start of the season were nothing short of brilliant. Matched with a fine car in the Brawn BGP 001 and a reliable and quick Mercedes engine, Jenson as we should now know won 6 of the first 7 races. In the only race he didn’t win in the first 7 he still managed a fine third in Bahrain behind the two Red Bull drivers (Vettel and Webber).

In fact in those early parts of the season it looked like this year’s season was going to be a boring processional one. No disrespect to Button or Brawn whose achievements were quite sensational, but if it wasn’t for the Red Bull’s finding some form and the other leading drivers making steps forward, Brawn’s dominance may have been seen in a negative light. After all at the start of this decade we had Michael Schumacher winning a staggering 5 championships on the bounce. Between 2000 and 2004, only the 2000 and 2003 seasons were ones where Schumacher and Ferrari didn’t have it all their own way.

Since Turkey though, Button ‘struggled’ in the eyes of a few people and began to struggle for the front in qualifying yet alone the races. However in the races since Turkey, he has still only failed to finish in the points once. Even in Spa where he retired after a handful of corners on the first lap, it wasn’t really his fault. Heading into the tricky Les Combres section of the track, Jenson spun out only after Renault’s Romain Grosjean ran into the back of him.

That blemish aside he has still had what most drivers would call good point’s finishes, especially a good second at Monza behind fellow team mate Rubens Barichello. So bad days of 5th and 7th placed finishes at the end have helped him to the title because they were not DNF’s where his championship lead would slip further behind.

This year Jenson has had a car worthy of his talents. After dogged years where he was driving a crap car which even a driver with the combined talents of Schumacher, Senna and Moss wouldn’t be able to do well in. Right from the word go, Jenson’s driving was spot on and he matched some brilliant qualifying performances with excellent race results. During those races in particular and the whole season to be fair, when Jenson needed a good spell of laps to put pressure on his opponents he put in some great lap times that earned him the success in the races. It was very much a year of Jenson getting in the car and expressing himself behind the wheel, something he had not been able to in past years.

Now I’ll focus on the team and team owner Ross Brawn. When the 2009 regulations were announced in December 2006, Ross Brawn sacrificed Honda’s 2007 and 2008 seasons for a chance to be the top dog in a year where the technical and aero-dynamical regulations of the car were to be the most radical in years. However after dismal performances and the current world economic recession Honda decided to pull out of the sport in December last year and everyone involved within the team was out of a job.

Thankfully Ross Brawn brought the team and kept the team on the grid. There were casualties with hundreds of people at the base in Brackley losing their jobs. But those high up knew that they had a competitive car under their belts and the rest now is history. The car baring the odd mistake has been reliable and the team have won 8 races so far this season. It’s a credit to everyone involved with the team through their previous incarnations of Honda and BAR that there has been a fairytale ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel – even if they were not present at Interlagos last weekend.

Ross has shown once again that he is one of the key figures in F1. Under his work he has been part of championship winning seasons with 3 different teams; Benetton, Ferrari and now his own team. Of course beforehand he was working with a certain Michael Schumacher who at his peak was the best driver in the sport. This year’s championship i would argue means more not just because of Brawn’s fairytale story but the fact that they have overcome the bigger names in Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW in getting there.

In conclusion both Button and Brawn are worthy champions. Yes they were slightly fortunate at the start of the season that no-one could really match up to them, but the team still had to do their job and Jenson had to get to the car to the finish. Time and time again this year, when it has really mattered Jenson has produced the pace and consistency needed to win the title. The team have continued their fine work and with limited resources at the start of the year have worked their way to a stunning conclusion. Between now and next season the likes of Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren will be working their hardest to chase down Brawn and start next season well. It will be hard for both Button and Brawn to retain their titles; however I don’t think that they’re a team scared of a daunting challenge