Monday, October 10, 2011

Jenson Button form boosts ambition for second world title



Jenson Button has set his sights on winning a second world title, with his form reaching new heights.
Button took the crown with Brawn in 2009 and has emerged as new world champion Sebastian Vettel's closest challenger, winning in Japan on Sunday.
Asked if he had another title in him, the McLaren driver said: "Definitely, and that is why I moved to this team."
Button said McLaren had "gone close too many times" in the last 20 years and were "moving in the right direction".
Sunday's win was third of the season - only Vettel has won more.
The only other drivers to score victories in a season dominated by Vettel and Red Bull are Button's team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who won in China and Germany, and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso at the British Grand Prix.

Button is now in the sweet spot of his career - he has become like a fine wine
Damon Hill1996 world champion
"Winning five races (personally) in the last two years is not enough, but it's pretty good," Button said.
"We have just got to hope we can get it all together. As a team - me, Lewis and the mechanics - we have really developed.
"But we're not going to get ahead of ourselves. When we're back at the factory we can think about next year."
Button has close emotional ties to Japan and said winning there was one of the "most special" races of his career.
"I want to live in the moment because it feels so good, but I also think that yes, this is a great base for next year," he said.
"I want to fight for victory in all four races left this season and I think we should be able to do that.
"Red Bull have done it the last couple of years. We need to do the same thing.""If we can do it, it would be a fantastic platform for next year, and ending on a high is the best way to do it.
He said McLaren's hopes about 2012 had been boosted by the fact that they were able to beat Red Bull at Suzuka, where Vettel has dominated for the last two seasons.
Button said: "One of the key things for us this year is we are getting the car working at places like Suzuka and Spa.
"They are basically places where you should paint Red Bull all over the circuit because they are Red Bull tracks.
"Suzuka is so fast, with the high-speed corners and changes of direction.
"But we have improved our car so much we're able to take the fight to them at places like this, which is somewhere we've always felt weak compared to Red Bull."
Former world champion Damon Hill told BBC Sport that Button was in the form of his life and had fully established himself as one of the top four drivers in F1.
"He's shown he's better than we ever thought he was," said Hill, who won the title with Williams in 1996.
"He is now in the sweet spot of his career - he has become like a fine wine.
"All those years in F1 are starting to come into play and he's a complete package and he has confidence on top of that and he's very, very strong, much stronger than he ever was."

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...