Jenson Button - Britain's Number 1?

A good friend of mine likes to constantly wind me up about Jenson Button being “Britain’s Number 1″. And, after a season like 2011, the Championship standings cannot be argued with – Jenson scored 270 to Lewis’ 227 points. However, there’s always more to it than that…:-)

The success of Jenson at McLaren has only served to enhance the pressure on Lewis. And whilst his team mate has stuck to being a racing driver, Lewis appears to have embarked upon the David Beckham path of celebrity status, popstar girlfriend and establishing himself as a brand – leaving F1 fans wondering how long it will be before the Hamilton perfume range hits the shop rather than how long before he becomes F1 World Champion again…

At the heart of it all you do get the feeling that Lewis is still a pure racer and up there with Vettel and Alonso when it comes to taking it to the limit, extracting the extra tenths from the car, and fighting for position. This contrasts strongly with the long game approach of Jenson of looking after the tyres, driving strategically well in changeable weather conditions and being there to pick up the pieces when the others make mistakes.

If Lewis and Jenson were contestants on the X-Factor, I’m pretty sure Simon Cowell would be saying that one had star quality and one had the likeability factor. There’s nothing wrong with being likeable, indeed, thats why it’s so easy to support Jenson. However, it’s not quite the X-Factor, which I’m convinced is what gives Lewis a certain “edge”.

The danger is of course that having this “edge” means that you live life on it, and this can lead to a certain lifestyle where it’s hero (2008) to zero (2011) in a matter of moments – race by race or season by season. The press are particularly key in this area and it is notable that they are quick to jump on anything negative around Lewis, playing up the rivalry at McLaren for all it’s worth.

I hope the 2012 McLaren (which, by the way, is the prettiest 2012 car!) is worthy of a Championship and we get to see Lewis v Jenson for race wins each weekend. I’m hoping that way I’ll be reading about their rivalries in Autosport rather than Heat magazine…

The fateful 1994 season raised the profile of F1 around the world. Ayrton Senna was a global sporting icon. I’m not sure I realised the extent of this status until I saw the excellent film, Senna, at the cinema last year. In the words of Stephen Fry as the producers collected their BAFTA recently, even if you have no interest in motorsport at all, this film is worth seeing.

The day Senna died he was driving a Williams-Renault. The team were reigning Constructors World Champions, a title they would go on to win for a third time running that season. Senna’s team mate was Damon Hill who, that same year, would narrowly miss out on the World Championship and in so doing ignite a rivalry with Michael Schumacher that would last for several years.

The Williams-Renault team drew huge support from F1 fans, particularly the Brits. At the team’s heart were two British stalwarts in Frank Williams and Patrick Head. The team was about achieving engineering excellence and, above all, winning. Their cars carried British heros Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill to World Championships in the 1990s, there were drivers titles also for Alain Prost and Jacques Villeneuve, and the team collected 5 Constructors crowns along the way.

Fast-forward 15 years (wow, has it really been that long?!). The 2012 F1 season sees the reuniting of the super power that was Williams-Renault. However, the team has not won a race since the early 2000s, has seen a gradual slide down the grid and in the last 12 months has faced the departure of key personnel including Sam Michael and Patrick Head. The 2012 driver line up of Maldonado and Bruno Senna stinks of pay-drivers and a requirement for their South American investors.

Whilst the Senna name will once again adorn a Williams-Renault, it seems that this could be where the parallels between the eras end. Or could it? Let’s not forget that Renault have powered RedBull to their last two Championship victories… However I, for one, remain worried for Williams. Only time will tell if they are on the road to recovery or obscurity.

Half way through the 2011 season came the news that we UK F1 fans have been dreading for years – the rights to the TV coverage of our sport had been sold to Sky. I can’t think of anyone – fans, journalists, advertisers even(?), who thought that this was good news.

A few months down the line and I’m now a paid-up Sky customer, for the simple reason of F1. There must be many others like me; but probably an equal number who absolutely refuse to pay the subscription and will be sticking with the BBC’s more limited coverage.

The BBC have revolutionised F1 coverage in the last few years, and I’m sure when the season starts will continue to produce quality coverage. I can definitely see me tuning into Jake, EJ and DC in the pre-race build ups; then switching over to Sky for the commentary – Martin Brundle and David Croft should be, in my mind, the perfect duo.

Brundle needs to get back to his “expert” role. Listening to his work as lead commentator for the BBC last year wasn’t always easy – for years he’d been the calm side-kick of Murray Walker, James Allen and Jonathan Legard. Whilst they went bananas with excitement, it was Martin who complemented the crazyness with his understated dry wit. In 2012, alongside David Croft, who has been excellent in his work with Anthony Davidson over the past few years, this aspect of Brundle’s delivery should hopefully return.

So what will the Sky coverage bring? Will we be thrown back to the days of ITVF1 in 1997 and the novice Jim Rosenthal? Will we be surprised by their slickness? They have a lot to live up to. The bar set by Jake Humphrey and friends is exceedingly high.

I guess the point of this blog is to pass comment on the F1 season from my perspective as a fan. I don’t profess to know everything[/anything(!)] about tyre pressures, aerodynamics or diffusers, but I do have a genuine love of the sport, it’s characters, the cars and the spectacle. When I hear anyone describe the sport as “just cars going round in a circle” I do understand, to an extent. I understand that they have no understanding; and that’s fine… They all come around in the end…!

And so I have decided that 2012 is the year of the F1 blog, oh and Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and McLaren of course (I did not say that this would be an unbiased blog).