Will Button ever come good again?

Will Jenson Button ever recapture his form? Evitable the answer I see is no.
I remember watching Button complete 96 laps on a testing day at Silverstone earlier this summer and he failed to impress me, I saw the Brit trying to push his Honda as hard as he could and achieved nothing. He completed the most laps of the field but he remained the second slowest.
This season he has not done anything of note, another wasted season. The Brit that promised so much has let down so many. If it were not for the emergence of fellow Brit Lewis Hamilton to take his thunder, the British public would have been left to ponder more disappointment.
Button’s 2008 car had to simply run its course, and then maybe the newly installed Team Principal Ross Brawn will be able to set a flamethrower to it, destroy any remains, and bury them deep into the ground. Concentration on next season must be the key.
Once again, Button saw out another season where he massively faded. His car was ‘complained’ as the reason but you have to start questioning his ability.
His solitary win at Hungary in August 2006 seems a distant memory. It took him 113 races to win just one and it will probably take another 113 for him to come even close again. This season he has not bettered his 15 podiums and that may always be the case.
Button’s 2008 teammate Rubens Barrichello has been achieving the better results, a third place finish at Silverstone was majestic, and it was with the same car. Again, Button remained disappointing.
Question marks are touted for his next contract extension for Honda Racing. His current deal expires at the end of next season. Will another disappointing campaign spark the end of his love affair with Honda?
Nigel Mansell came out to criticise Button especially as the pre-eminent British drive in F1 was taken by newbie Lewis Hamilton. Mansell claimed, “He (Button) had the opportunity and he didn’t take it-there won’t be any more.”
I believe that is the case also. His time in the sun is well and truly over. I am not even convinced that Honda will offer him a drive after next season. His high wages and failure to reach his potential has come under scrutiny.
When Button joined Williams Formula One team in 2000 at age 20, he wowed fans with electrifying driving and scored points all season. Unlike Hamilton, Button did not win a race in his season. However he the youngest man to ever score points in Formula One when he finished sixth at the Brazilian Grand Prix before Sebastian Vettel took that title off him with an eighth placed finished at the United States Grand Prix.
From then on Button spent several seasons in eclipse, before rising briefly to score a few podiums and a race victory. He has now disappeared once again. And who knows when he may rise again?

Hamilton? Chilton wants his title

What is a young age in Formula 1? Lewis Hamilton became the youngest man to win a Drivers Championship this term but there may be a fellow Brit to challenge that title.
Max Chilton became the youngest driver to race in the British Formula 3 Championship in 2007 when he raced at Donnington Park on his 16th Birthday. This was the beginning of his valuable experience to try to pursue his route to the top.
Now only modestly 17 years old, he has added another years worth of experience. The 2007 season was his first racing a single seater and to be in racing in Formula 3 at his age is quite remarkable. Whilst competing for Arena Motorsport, Chilton showed great maturity, as he was able to finish most races, adding to his learning of the sport.
His pace and ability was quickly scouted and was swiftly signed up for the well-known Hitech Racing team, who initially won the 2007 Championship. The 2006 Karting Champions Cup runner-up fills the seat of Estonian Marko Asmer, who won F3 in 2007. He has been signed by the BMW Sauber F1 tem as test and reserve driver to continue his developing career.
He had a somewhat indifferent 2008 campaign but at his age, you can barely argue. Still adjusting to the handling of the car, he knows that his was just another learning curve season for him and he expect from himself to be challenging next year.
In the Touring Car Championship in 2006, he managed an impressive 14 podiums out of 20 races, with seven wins, two seconds, and five thirds. He was only denied the Drivers title by controversial circumstances, as he lost out by 3 points. Running parallels with Hamilton possibly.
He also achieved a memorable victory in the European Kart Race in Portugal, racing away from an experienced field to win comfortably. These series showed great indication that he was ready for the step up.
Chilton is still relatively unknown in the upper echelons of motorsport and despite his modest good looks and appealing name, he remains firmly determined to reach his evitable goal – to become a Formula 1 driver.
He is under no illusion that getting into one of those 22 seats will be difficult. Some who rose up the ranks with Hamilton in junior Karting ranks have not achieved such great success. Wesley Graves and Gary Paffett both were with the McLaren’s Young Driver Programme before Graves faded away through the lack of financial support and Paffett making a name for himself in the German sports car series DTM.
It is a harsh and tragic truth that the majority of drivers will end up disappointed. Formula 1 is the pinnacle point of motorsport and the competition for those seats will always be severely competitive. They are the finest drivers going head to head with the most technologically tuned four wheeled vehicles.
Chilton is certainly heading towards the right direction. Yet being able to legally consume alcohol, he may be light years ahead of his time. Scouts will be searching these feeder series for the next best thing and if Chilton continues his development he will be snapped up and follow the Hamilton’s example to success.
A successful 2009 series will lead him to GP2 before heading into the glitz and glamour that is known as Formula 1.
Watch out for this name.

Formula 1 heads to New Golden Era

Lewis Hamilton won this year’s Drivers Championship in fanatic fashion, passing Timo Glock when he was on the penultimate corner of the last lap to claim the title by a point. Sheer breath-taking stuff but the 2008 season had me excited for one main reason: the fact that Formula 1 is about to embark on a new golden era.
There are so many new decent drivers making a name, and the next ten years of the sport will be the most exciting yet.
The 2007 season showed the sheer competitiveness between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton battling it out for the championship before the squabbling allowed Kimi Raikkonen to take the glory and the Championship.
The 2008 season showed Felipe Massa and Hamilton having to battle it out on the last race at Brazil that provided a thrilling end.
Throughout the season, we had three new winners McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen, Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, and BMW’s Robert Kubica at Hungary, Italy, and Canada respectively.
Alonso reminded everyone that he is not dead in the water as the former champion won at Singapore and Japan ousting the McLaren’s and Ferrari’s to take the chequered flag with a Renault.
He won back-to-back championships with Renault back in 2005 and 2006 before his ill fate season with McLaren and next year Renault will be more competitive as they look to close the gap.
The 27 year old has the determination and the talent to win another title yet.
Kubica had a fantastic start to the season before eventually fading in the final races. His win at Canada was partly down to luck, when Hamilton stupidly crashed into the back of Raikkonen, but that should not prevent any negative credibility.
His second placed finishes at Malaysia, Monaco and Japan and other podium finishes at Bahrain and Valencia showed much dedication and prominent signs of a future world champion.
Vettel joined the sport this year and had an astonishing season in a Toro Rosso where the team was not expected to do well. The win at Italy was a high point and a fourth spot finish in Brazil certainly showed his credentials as he made Hamilton undoubtedly sweat. He had fantastic pace and his ability should not be ignored.
His promotion to the Red Bull team to fill Davis Coulthard’s position has been granted and utterly deserved.
After the first four races where he suffered retirements in each one, he started to look like a competitor. Fifth place finishes in Monaco, Belgium, and Singapore were hugely creditable.
Kovalainen had a relatively poor season compared to the potential he promised after his successful debut season with Renault in 2007.
In 2008, his highlights were his win in Hungry and achieving pole at Silverstone by a mile. He only achieved two other podiums throughout the season with a second spot at Italy and Malaysia.
Next season, where he will play a massive second fiddle to Hamilton, Kovalainen will be under pressure to perform but he needs to, to make sure off his seat in the future.
Massa, 27, and Raikkonen, 29, may not be as young as the others may be, but both will have a huge say for a few years yet.
Jenson Button 28 has the promise of a decent car for next year, it may be competitive, and he could possibly add to his solitary win at Hungry in 2006.
The next ten years will be huge and there are hopes to emulate other keenly contest throughout the years.
Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio during the fifties were huge rivals.
The Jim Clark, Graham Hill, and John Surtees British dominance in the early sixties was fondly remembered as thy contested for the title the best of British.
Perhaps the most famous rivalries came from the Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, and Ayrton Senna era, and with Nigel Mansell supplying more strong rivalry in the latter part, it was the best level of competitiveness yet.
You even had seven-time champion Michael Schumacher trying to oust Damon Hill.
Not until now, you have so many talented drivers ready to battle it out for the championship.
We can only wait in anticipation.