“I don’t think Paddy wants to create embarrassment to his team or his
colleagues, so at his own election he felt it not appropriate to be here,”
he explained. “Clearly there is a lot of media interest and I think it is
best that Paddy concentrates on doing his job.”
Button, who has formed an especially close bond with Lowe, was sanguine: “I
have a very good relationship with Paddy, but people move on. I’m sure when
Lewis left the team it was a big shock, but you have regroup and train
someone else up. A team is about more than one person, we can’t forget
that.”
If Whitmarsh harboured any sorrow over the loss of Hamilton, he was not
showing it. “Lewis was clearly a great asset and we had some great times
together but I don’t think many people in our sport spend too much time
dwelling on memories,” he reflected. “That is the way, perhaps sadly, of
motor racing.”
Button, looking remarkably fresh after a winter in which he set a
sub-three-hour marathon time, was not one for agonising about the recent
past. “Maybe it’s the new direction we’re taking with the car, or maybe it’s
having a new team-mate, but I am the most excited I have been since coming
into the sport in 2000 with Williams,” he said. From one finally liberated
from the shadow of Hamilton, it sounded an ominous statement of intent.