The poet Alfred Tennyson deemed it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, a position Button probably shares on balance. Though he has always maintained that the idea of being champion has never been allowed to penetrate his thinking, the creeping desperation in his tone betrays the fallacy.
Button’s five wins in the opening six races, as many as Lewis Hamilton notched in total in his run to the world title last year, gave him licence to affect disinterest when in truth he was as excited as hell. We recall how the prospect of victory at Monaco meant little until he crossed the line first. Button was so unhinged by the experience that he ran out of the pits the wrong way with his helmet on.
Lewis Hamilton could not buy a podium finish in his McLaren during the first half of the season. Now he is in a winning car. There is a way back for Button, too. Patience is the key. Telegraph.co.uk
Both Britons will be desperate to get behind the wheel again, but one will walk into the garages in Valencia excited by what amounts to a new car while the other will experience the anxiety associated with visiting the service department to find out whether a troublesome motor has been fixed and at what cost to his ambition.
“It’s not ideal,” confessed Button. “This is supposed to be a holiday – and it will be a very well-deserved one for all the teams as they close for two weeks – but it’s a bit weird for the drivers. When everything’s going well and you know what’s coming over the next few races, you want to just keep going. You are itching to get back in a winning car. On the other hand, when it doesn’t go well, the feeling is you need to get another race under the belt in order to get back up there.”
Having won six of the first seven races, Button has much to think about after seeing his championship lead shrink to 18.5 points. The discussion is no longer about when the Englishman will win the 2009 title but if he can hang on until the final round in Abu Dhabi in November. Guardian.co.uk
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