British success
If you are a people living in the wettest country in Western Europe, you inevitably find that you have a lot of time indoors with which to plan what to do in the limited time you have outdoors. My pet theory is that the miserable weather the British population suffers for most of the time has been responsible for allowing it the time to invent a great many of the sports known and enjoyed throughout the world today. Without the British we would not have football, rugby, cricket, golf, field hockey, tennis and several others. But, as we have seen at each football world cup since 1966, each Wimbledon tennis championship since 1936, numerous cricket test matches, hundreds of golf tournaments and lots more, inventiveness is not the same thing as ability.
Up and down the country, during the first decent summer in three years, Brits are not walking about with puffed-out chests but instead crying into their beers at the laughable performance of Wayne Rooney and the rest of England 2010 in South Africa and the annihilation of Andy Murray by Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon semi-finals. When hopes are raised as high as they were (cars everywhere flying the flag of St George, ad nauseum media build-up, the Queen appearing at Wimbledon for the first time since 1977 etc), it is understandable that a proud nation feels crushed by defeat.
There is, however, reason for the Brits to raise their chins a little. In the field of motor racing Britain is a world leader in the design and manufacture of outstanding cars, home to one of the best circuits on the Grand Prix calendar and possessed of a Grand Prix driving heritage going back to the very beginning of motor racing. As we return to Silverstone for the 2010 British Grand Prix, we do so for the first time since the 1960s when two British world champions are competing against each other for the drivers’ world championship in competitive cars. Since this also happens to be the halfway point of the 2010 season and, potentially, one of its highlights, it is worth taking a step back and re-examining the relative merits of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
Jenson Button was brought into Formula One at the age of 20 by Sir Frank Williams, one of the best talent spotters in the business. Early success went straight to his head. In an earnest attempt at emulating renowned F1 playboys of the past like James Hunt, Button got himself a yacht called Little Missy and dated a string of models. What Button failed to realise was that while rakish Hunt was never known willingly to spurn an opportunity to articulate enthusiastically and at length on the subject of Uganda, he did so having proved his prowess on the racing track and earned a world championship. Button was attempting to “do a Hunt” without ever having stepped onto a Grand Prix podium in his life! His lacklustre performance at the Grand Prix circuits suggested to one and all that the young lad’s mind was elsewhere. This inattention to the things that really mattered came very close to bringing his F1 career to an early end.
Not a man known to suffer fools gladly, Sir Frank Williams dispensed with the services of Jenson Button with great haste. After just one season in Formula One, Button lost his Williams drive at the end of his rookie season in 2000 to a Colombian maverick called Juan Pablo Montoya. (Montoya had the makings of a world champion but not quite the temperament and he eventually left a potential F1 championship drive with McLaren for a career in the nether depths of stock car racing in America.) Button then moved to Renault but was elbowed out after a year to make way for a chap about whom you might have heard called Fernando Alonso. Alonso, as we now know, went on to win back-to-back world championships at Renault. Button then had to languish in the inferior world of also-ran F1 teams for six years until he was mercifully rescued by Ross Brawn at the beginning of 2009.
By the middle of the 2009 season, all the naysayers, myself included, found that there had been ruthless ambition and ample raw talent lurking underneath the blokey exterior of Jenson Button all along. Delivering a world championship for a brand new team was never on anybody’s list of potential achievements for Button in 2000. Again, virtually every commentator did not rate his chances against Lewis Hamilton and thought it was unwise of him to move to McLaren. “Hamilton will make mincemeat of him,” said the Press. Well, after nine races, Button has achieved two wins and five podium positions and is now second in the championship standings with only six points difference between him and the leader. Button is hardly mincemeat! He had some growing up to do over nine years but there is no doubt that he is a worthy world championship contender.
The entry of Lewis Hamilton into Formula One was unlike that of any other driver in the sport’s history. He had been a McLaren protégé since his early teens and was so well prepared for the big stage, that he was a world championship challenger from the first qualifying session for his first Grand Prix in Australia in 2007. Bad luck and a few unforced errors of inexperience denied him the championship by one point in that year but he came back in 2008 to become the youngest world champion in F1 history.
Throughout his pre-F1 days and for the first three years at McLaren, Hamilton had the benefit of the guiding hand of his doting father, Anthony, as his manager. Some feared that the sudden onset of celebrity - which, as night followed day, produced top-end totty in the shape of an American pop star girlfriend – would derail the youngster even more profoundly than it had Button; but it did not. A combination of the militaristic regime at McLaren, Anthony Hamilton’s guidance and Lewis’s own focused ambition ensured that this was never at risk of happening.
2009 was a difficult year for Hamilton, mostly because McLaren had failed to engineer a competitive car with which he could take the fight to Brawn and Red Bull. He did his best, though, and succeeded in getting on the podium five times, twice as the winner. His performance this year suggests that he did not suffer a drop in confidence as a result of the bad season. He is now clearly mentally stronger than he was, as he does not seem to have suffered for ditching his father as manager at the end of last year – perhaps this is just because he is older.
Head to head, I now find it more difficult than ever to decide between Hamilton and Button. I think Hamilton has more raw talent but he is given to bursts of impetuousness. He sometimes finds it difficult to play the long game and maximise points. If there is a chance of an overtaking manoeuvre, Hamilton will almost always take it even if it means an end to his race. This makes him the more entertaining of the two. Button is a more measured, methodical driver who understands the merit to be had in nursing ones car to the chequered flag.
Which is the better approach? We will know the answer in November.
In the meantime, the Red Bull drivers and Fernando Alonso at Ferrari do not intend to make it easy for either Englishman.
Who would I bet on for Silverstone success on Sunday? A Spaniard won the men’s championship at Wimbledon and Spain is almost certainly going to win the football world cup on Sunday, so you could do a lot worse than put a bet on Alonso, couldn’t you?
Enjoy Silverstone!
Gitau
8 July 2010
Up and down the country, during the first decent summer in three years, Brits are not walking about with puffed-out chests but instead crying into their beers at the laughable performance of Wayne Rooney and the rest of England 2010 in South Africa and the annihilation of Andy Murray by Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon semi-finals. When hopes are raised as high as they were (cars everywhere flying the flag of St George, ad nauseum media build-up, the Queen appearing at Wimbledon for the first time since 1977 etc), it is understandable that a proud nation feels crushed by defeat.
There is, however, reason for the Brits to raise their chins a little. In the field of motor racing Britain is a world leader in the design and manufacture of outstanding cars, home to one of the best circuits on the Grand Prix calendar and possessed of a Grand Prix driving heritage going back to the very beginning of motor racing. As we return to Silverstone for the 2010 British Grand Prix, we do so for the first time since the 1960s when two British world champions are competing against each other for the drivers’ world championship in competitive cars. Since this also happens to be the halfway point of the 2010 season and, potentially, one of its highlights, it is worth taking a step back and re-examining the relative merits of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
Jenson Button was brought into Formula One at the age of 20 by Sir Frank Williams, one of the best talent spotters in the business. Early success went straight to his head. In an earnest attempt at emulating renowned F1 playboys of the past like James Hunt, Button got himself a yacht called Little Missy and dated a string of models. What Button failed to realise was that while rakish Hunt was never known willingly to spurn an opportunity to articulate enthusiastically and at length on the subject of Uganda, he did so having proved his prowess on the racing track and earned a world championship. Button was attempting to “do a Hunt” without ever having stepped onto a Grand Prix podium in his life! His lacklustre performance at the Grand Prix circuits suggested to one and all that the young lad’s mind was elsewhere. This inattention to the things that really mattered came very close to bringing his F1 career to an early end.
Not a man known to suffer fools gladly, Sir Frank Williams dispensed with the services of Jenson Button with great haste. After just one season in Formula One, Button lost his Williams drive at the end of his rookie season in 2000 to a Colombian maverick called Juan Pablo Montoya. (Montoya had the makings of a world champion but not quite the temperament and he eventually left a potential F1 championship drive with McLaren for a career in the nether depths of stock car racing in America.) Button then moved to Renault but was elbowed out after a year to make way for a chap about whom you might have heard called Fernando Alonso. Alonso, as we now know, went on to win back-to-back world championships at Renault. Button then had to languish in the inferior world of also-ran F1 teams for six years until he was mercifully rescued by Ross Brawn at the beginning of 2009.
By the middle of the 2009 season, all the naysayers, myself included, found that there had been ruthless ambition and ample raw talent lurking underneath the blokey exterior of Jenson Button all along. Delivering a world championship for a brand new team was never on anybody’s list of potential achievements for Button in 2000. Again, virtually every commentator did not rate his chances against Lewis Hamilton and thought it was unwise of him to move to McLaren. “Hamilton will make mincemeat of him,” said the Press. Well, after nine races, Button has achieved two wins and five podium positions and is now second in the championship standings with only six points difference between him and the leader. Button is hardly mincemeat! He had some growing up to do over nine years but there is no doubt that he is a worthy world championship contender.
The entry of Lewis Hamilton into Formula One was unlike that of any other driver in the sport’s history. He had been a McLaren protégé since his early teens and was so well prepared for the big stage, that he was a world championship challenger from the first qualifying session for his first Grand Prix in Australia in 2007. Bad luck and a few unforced errors of inexperience denied him the championship by one point in that year but he came back in 2008 to become the youngest world champion in F1 history.
Throughout his pre-F1 days and for the first three years at McLaren, Hamilton had the benefit of the guiding hand of his doting father, Anthony, as his manager. Some feared that the sudden onset of celebrity - which, as night followed day, produced top-end totty in the shape of an American pop star girlfriend – would derail the youngster even more profoundly than it had Button; but it did not. A combination of the militaristic regime at McLaren, Anthony Hamilton’s guidance and Lewis’s own focused ambition ensured that this was never at risk of happening.
2009 was a difficult year for Hamilton, mostly because McLaren had failed to engineer a competitive car with which he could take the fight to Brawn and Red Bull. He did his best, though, and succeeded in getting on the podium five times, twice as the winner. His performance this year suggests that he did not suffer a drop in confidence as a result of the bad season. He is now clearly mentally stronger than he was, as he does not seem to have suffered for ditching his father as manager at the end of last year – perhaps this is just because he is older.
Head to head, I now find it more difficult than ever to decide between Hamilton and Button. I think Hamilton has more raw talent but he is given to bursts of impetuousness. He sometimes finds it difficult to play the long game and maximise points. If there is a chance of an overtaking manoeuvre, Hamilton will almost always take it even if it means an end to his race. This makes him the more entertaining of the two. Button is a more measured, methodical driver who understands the merit to be had in nursing ones car to the chequered flag.
Which is the better approach? We will know the answer in November.
In the meantime, the Red Bull drivers and Fernando Alonso at Ferrari do not intend to make it easy for either Englishman.
Who would I bet on for Silverstone success on Sunday? A Spaniard won the men’s championship at Wimbledon and Spain is almost certainly going to win the football world cup on Sunday, so you could do a lot worse than put a bet on Alonso, couldn’t you?
Enjoy Silverstone!
Gitau
8 July 2010
posted by Gitau at 11:59 am
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