#5 Button is Best!

The grand prix in Brazil has crowned the world champion for the last 4 years and this year was no different with Jenson Button finishing 5th - just about enough to limp over the finishing line and make it mathematically impossible for anyone else.
These posts haven't been that frequent (as is the usual promise) but I am thrilled that Jenson got the job done and is now World Champ 2009 - the first ever consecutive british driver and the 10th driver to clinch the title in the sport's history.

Don't forget that Brawn GP also secured the constructor's championship at Brazil which rounds off a literally unbelievable year for a team that was very close to not making it into the 2009 season.
Honda has to be credited for a lot of success, and despite pulling out at the end of last year, development for what became the Brawn car started early through the 2008 season and a lot of funding to produce a car that was fundamentally quick.

At the time of my last post, Button (and Brawn) were on the perfect high. Button had won 6 out of the first 7 races, and with Barrichello also finishing very well meant that Brawn were comfortably leading the constructor's. I speculated to a friend that Button should go on to win the championship after carving such a headstart - one that can he use to buffer against the return of the form of the teams we expect to see at the top - Ferrari and MacLaren.
The Ferrari fightback never really happened, Kimi managed a good handful of podiums and even a race win to his credit. Massa unfrotunately fell foul to a rogue piece from Barrichello's car and is/was ruled out for the rest of the season - Good news is that the injury was non-fatal and he should be back in the Ferrari next year. Badoer, and now Giancarlo Fisichella have substituted for Massi in his absence and have done dismally, pretty much pushing up the rest of the grid in qualifying, giving the rest of the paddock a glimpse at how difficult the 2009 Ferrari is to drive - more props to Kimi.

Another underperformer has been Heikki, teammate to Hamilton and in what can be called a bad car by their standards, has looked very average. A combination of Hamilton's talent and determination, coupled with the impressive resources at MacLaren have transformed the "dog of a car" to quote Eddie Jordan into a competitive car - a race winning car on a number of occasions at the hands of Hamilton. This was Heikki's second year at MacLaren and was his chance to show just what he can offer to the team, but now rumours are that he is heading to Renault to join Kubica. In fact, Kimi Raikkonen seems odds-on favourite to partner Hamilton next year - to me this seems crazy, I got the impression there was bad blood but may be that left with Ron Dennis.
In fact, I could do a whole post on the driver lineup for 2010, and I wish I did one earlier, as destination of the big names all seem decided. The big swap is Alonso to Ferrari although this has been known unofficially for most of this season, and speculated on even earlier than that.

A combination of the pressure on Jenson and development that went wrong mid-season meant that Barrichello would often perform better and every weekend seemed to be a repeating example of damage limitation for Button.

Getting back to the season, and after 7 races in, a lot of people myself included, starting talking about Jenson as world champion, and whilst he never admitted it until the eve of the Brazil GP, the pressure and expectation got to him. Reviewing Ferrari's and MacLaren's efforts, the main rival to Jenson took the form of the Red Bulls, who had a great season thanks to the Adrian Newey designed car. They will finish runners up in the constructor's championship, and must look good for next year. That is, unless you believe what Jenson has come out and said that Brawn will not be one hit wonders, and the slow spread of sponsors over the Brawn car hopefully confirms that they will have adequate funding to challenge for the title next year. Button is most likely to sign for Brawn next year and Barrichello will make the swap with Rosberg at Williams if rumours are to be believed.
So the Red Bulls were the main threat but the Newey car was so much on the bleeding edge, it fell prone to unreliability and engine failures. Mark Webber managed to secure his first win, a very popular winner in the paddock, but thanks to the bad reliability and two drivers that while being very talented, Mark is regarded as a quali expert, and Sebastian's speed is unquestionable, I think they lacked that extra once of racecraft to maximise their points. That being said, both are now race winners in a well funded and ambitious team, I'd throw a bit of money on one of their drivers for next year's crown.
The Red Bull threat faded as the season reached its climax, first Vettel dropped out the hunt and then Mark a few races later, and that pretty much left the two Brawn drivers. A combination of the pressure on Jenson and development that went wrong mid-season meant that Barrichello would often perform better and every weekend seemed to be a repeating example of damage limitation for Button.

Since his last win in Turkey, Jenson's qualifying was very poor, a couple of times being knocked out in Q1 which made races very difficult to score points, near impossible to win, and so Jenson would have to fight his way and pass cars to make up for a dismal performance on the Saturday. Jenson has made a name this year of making crucial passes, the last race in Brazil is the best example of this, and was "a champion's drive". I'm not sure if this was a bit of conservative strategy but after qualifying I would be cussing "why not fuel Jenson a bit light, get him up the grid?". His qualifying performance does confirm that with a perfectly set up car, Jenson is untouchable with his smooth approach. If the car is less than perfect, then Jenson finds it more difficult to adapt his style and get the maximum out of the car, proven at the weekends where Rubens could not be matched by Button.

So this pretty much wraps up this season, the last race is at Abu Dhabi, a new addition to the calendar and with both championships settled, here's hoping for a exciting race and perhaps a return to the early season Button, now that the pressure is off. It's also worth mentioning that the BBC have done a good (not great) job at taking over the coverage from ITV. See a previous post for my thoughts on their coverage. There were crazy scenes as everyone wanted a piece of Button after the race. In between Coulthard looking uncomfortable being grinded by some celebrating Brawn engineers and Jake Humphreys literally pushing cameras out of the way of their BBC cameras during a post-race interview with the world champion, it was good to see a Brit win the title, there's always the British mentality that we'll slip up somewhere - I swear it was never that crazy for when Hamilton won the title (although I may just have a bad memory). Spare a thought for those drivers on the podium, they had a pretty poor attendance if the cheers were anything to go by.