Can Jenson Button retain the title this year?
Arguably Jenson Button has the least chance of retaining his world title since Jacques Villeneuve pulled on his Williams helmet in 1998. With Ferrari signing Alonso and Mercedes bringing back Michael Schumacher plus the fact that Lewis Hamilton is now Jenson Button’s team mate there will be much more competition this year for the top set of points, and I haven’t even mentioned the Red Bull team.
Jenson Button will first and foremost have to beat his team mate to win the title and that is going to be a tough ask, he’ll have to do better than Fernando Alonso did in 2007, Hamilton has improved since then too. Button moves to McLaren as the World Champion as Alonso did in in 2007 but he’s also British and Hamilton did alienate a portion of the McLaren team last year after his antics in Australia so Button’s in a stronger position. What happens on the track is what matters though and they seem to have matched each other in testing so far.
As for competition outside of his own team he have a hard time beating Alonso and Michael Schumacher if the cars are about the same speed, and they will have team mates who’ll end up playing supporting roles if they’re not careful. So can he beat these two, it will ultimately depend on the car. Both of these drivers are immensely talented and will not give any ground willingly or through mistakes.
If the McLaren is head and shoulders above the rest he’ll have to beat Lewis to the crown but I’d say his chances are better in a mixed up season where there are many different race winners. He’s not going to be able to beat Lewis like he did Barrichello at the start of the year last season and so he’s going to need to be more consistent throughout the year. Whereas if the honours are being shared between a few drivers and teams it’s going to be about getting what points you can and Jenson has a lot of experience at that.
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