As I try to refer to elsewhere it gets very difficult playing the
"what if" game. It relies on too many variables and there's always a counter argument. True it's fun to speculate or "retrolate" but the end result is what counts.
I made this thread to throw back to this time in 2009 when the Button to McLaren announcement was made. Lets be honest we all thought "
biiiig mistake" he was going from being reigning champion and king of his castle to be court jester to Hamilton at McLaren. Hamilton would wipe the tracks clean with Button for sure right?
Well apparently wrong. Oh for sure Hamilton proved to be the quicker, the most aggressive, the most flamboyant, the one most expected to win from a sticky wicket. But it was never the comprehensive knock out victory we all anticipated, like what happened to Kovalainen for instance.
No, Button was clever. He accepted that Hamilton was quickest very early on and basically ignored it. He played to his strengths instead, his feel for changing conditions and the right moment to make the clever strategic calls. He integrated himself into the team to the state that it was no longer team Hamilton, something that even Alonso gave up as a lost cause.
Yes.. Button has had his shockers, the absolute nadir being Montreal this year where he languished embarrassingly off the pace in a healthy car whilst Hamilton was busy being epic. But Hamilton has had his shockers too, why he spent much of 2011 crashing into Felipe Massa at about the time that Button was the
only one to appear in Vettel's mirrors.
The conclusion is that Button is a much better racing driver than many gave or indeed give him credit for and maybe
just maybe his championship isn't quite as "
undeserved" as many like to think.
Be honest if someone said to us that after 3 years that Button would have out scored Hamilton on points and taken 8 wins to Hamilton's 10, we'd all have gone
"LOL dream on"How wrong we were.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2012 06:07PM by J i m.