13/12/2006
NEWS STORY
Although it was largely fortuitous, Jenson Button's win at the Hungaroring this year gave the Englishman some much needed breathing space.
Having passed the career milestone of 100 Grands Prix in 2005, the (mainly British) media was now marking each new race as a sign that perhaps Button wasn't the great white hope that had been promised them.
110, 111, 112... the British media was getting edgy, especially as the Renaults and Ferrari's were in a class of their own. The Brit-pack journalists were tired of making up excuses for their guy, especially after having to deal with two summers of Button-gate.
Then again, with Lewis Hamilton coming up on the outside, running riot in GP2 and clearly destined to take his place in F1, sooner or later, perhaps Button could be put down to experience, a nice guy but in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Then came a wet afternoon in Hungary, and suddenly the boy from Frome was being talked of as a prospective World Champion again, while a string of strong results at the end of the season gave hope of better things to come.
Though the British media might see Button as the golden boy, Ron Dennis, who knows just a little bit more about the sport, wasn't convinced, and stated that, in his opinion, there were just three real stars in F1, three men capable of winning World Championships. Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.
"If you take out the recognised top three, one of whom has retired, we felt that in looking at the others there was no-one who really shone," he told reporters.
Honda boss Nick Fry, on the other hand, is convinced that Dennis is wrong, believing that Button deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.
"I believe that Jenson is up there with both Alonso and Raikkonen as the top three," he said, according to Reuters. "There's others that will do well from time to time but in terms of consistently high performance he's in the top three without a shadow of a doubt.
"Lewis Hamilton will do extremely well," he added, referring to McLaren's bright new prospect. "I have absolutely no doubt about that, but it will probably take a little bit of time.
"He may do well in the first race," he added, "but I think we've seen with other younger drivers that it takes a bit of experience to do well in every race. And in order to compete for the championship, you've got to do well in every race.
"Jenson is the consummate professional, he drives himself very, very hard and there's not been one time in the last couple of years, where I've felt he's really put a foot out of place."
Referring to Button's performance at Interlagos, when the Englishman finished third, despite having started fourteenth on the grid, Fry said: "Before the race we were very clear that to have a chance of getting on the podium he had to overtake six cars on the first two laps. Jenson said 'I can do that'.
"It wasn't a matter of persuading him," added Fry, "it was 'I definitely can do that'. And he did. And I think that is really the difference after Hungary compared to prior to that."