Instead, Button has gone from strength to strength. He pushed his team-mate
close in his first season at Woking but really blossomed in 2011, becoming
the first of Hamilton’s team-mates to beat him over the course of a year as
he finished runner-up to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in the title race.
Suddenly Button is the one with the fresh McLaren contract in his back pocket,
the elder statesman, the driver most comfortable with the new Pirelli tyres
which place as much emphasis on pacing as outright pace.
“I don’t think I needed last year, but it gave me even more confidence,” he
admitted at a recent day with the media in the form of a pool tournament
organised by McLaren. “Maybe my confidence in working with the team and
showing how I can help the team increased.
“It is not simply about jumping in the car and driving as fast as you can. It
is about development, direction and strategy. There are so many things a
driver can bring which we don’t really realise in the early stages of our
career.”
With Kimi Raikkonen returning to the F1 fold this season there are an
unprecedented six world champions on the grid and Button — who heads to
Japan this weekend to run in a 10km race before flying to Australia — says
that to come out on top would “mean as much” to him as his 2009 triumph.
The good news for his army of fans is that he is handier with a F1 car than a
pool cue — and certainly luckier. The left-hander managed to sink the cue
ball almost as often as the colours during the tournament but left beaming
all the same.
Winter testing has been encouraging for McLaren, who experienced none of the
reliability issues that dogged them last year. While Red Bull will start the
season as favourites, and turned up in Barcelona last weekend with a huge
upgrade package which caused a bit of a stir, Button is calm.
“No one knows about our upgrades,” he said. “I’m very happy with the direction
we’ve taken with the car.
“Last year we had problems with the exhaust. We also had the problem that we
just weren’t very fast, even when the exhaust did work. But I feel that the
field will be bunched up a lot more now.
“Red Bull won’t have the advantage they had out of the blocks that they had
last season. Vettel is the favourite because he is the double world
champion, but nobody knows what is going to happen this year and that is
great for the sport.”
Meanwhile, former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari will be confirmed this
morning as Radio 5 Live’s co-commentator for the 2012 season, alongside
James Allen.