Jenson Button Has His Diffuser to Thank For Newfound Success

Button is such an engaging figure that it would be nice to believe the bad-boy-turns-good yarn. Alas, there is an elephant in the room: the question of Button’s new car – the Brawn GP – and in particular its diffuser, which seems to make it go significantly faster than the others.

The point is not to knock Button. And not saying he isn’t an excellent driver. When he joined the BAR team in 2003, his new team-mate and former world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, described him as merely a ‘boy band’ driver. Though never in the running for the title, Button outdrove Villeneuve all season.

In other words, Button was very good before (when he wasn’t winning), and he is very good now (when he is winning). The difference lies not with Button but in the circumstances: the car. Previously we thought Button might be good; now we can see he’s good. The change lies in our interpretation, not in Jenson Button.

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Ability and effort versus good fortune and opportunity: it is not only a central theme in sport, but a thread that runs through life. How many politicians had the gifts for high office but not the opportunity? How many actors never landed that career-defining role?

In athletics, the runners have to run laps of the same track with only their own legs and lungs to propel them.

But in motor racing, the driver’s skill is just one of the factors which determines the outcome – alongside team orders and the speed of the car. Even Formula 1’s most die-hard fans could not pretend it is a level playing field which reveals clearly who is the best driver. So how good is Jenson Button? We’re not that much closer to finding out.

But the problem isn’t unique to Formula 1. How do you judge any sportsmen whose solo performance is open to external circumstances?

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Perhaps Jenson Button, if he wins Formula 1, might thank his diffuser. In truth, we forget sport’s conventional winners and losers quite quickly. But we remember sportsmen who tell the truth.