Can Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button Co-Exist?
Mark Webber made news at the 2010 British Grand Prix for a variety of reasons. On the plus side, he won the race to climb to third place in the Drivers’ Championship. However, the win wasn’t without its share of controversy as he was engaged in a protracted drama with his Red Bull team after he lost his new front wing when it was taken off to be used as a replacement for the broken front wing of teammate Sebastian Vettel, who damaged his in practice. Even with the race victory, Webber sounded more than a little hurt after the race.
It’s ironic that Webber also made news before the race weekend began with comments he made to the press about the McLaren team and their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. The duo are first and second in the Drivers’ Championship while McLaren enjoys a healthy lead in the Constructors’ Championship over Red Bull after the midway point of the season. But Webber compared his previous issues with Vettel (including a collision in Turkey that knocked them out of a one-two finish) to the seemingly harmonious relationship between McLaren’s new teammates and said that it was “inevitably going to come” a time when Hamilton and Button have an on-track incident similar to Webber’s collision with Vettel during the Turkish Grand Prix.
Perhaps Webber’s predictions will come to pass before the end of the season but they definitely didn’t during the British Grand Prix, if for no other reason than the two drivers had radically different race weekends. Hamilton climbed to second at the opening lap (passing Vettel and making slight contact in the process after Vettel had a horrible start) and held on for second; meanwhile, Button had to rebound from a terrible qualifying session, charging through the field to get to fourth after starting 14th. It was a gutsy performance, but one that kept him far away from Hamilton on the track.
The McLaren team has presented a unified front this season and has refused to characterize either Hamilton or Button – the last two world champions – as the number one or number two driver for the team. So far, that motto has paid off as the McLaren team has built up a sizeable lead in the Constructors’ Championship while having their cars finish one-two in China, Turkey and Canada.
In fact, it was the race in Turkey that raised eyebrows. The two drivers swapped the lead twice late in the race, with Button overtaking Hamilton before being passed again – with the two cars almost making contact on several occasions. This led to increased speculation about the two drivers’ abilities to stay out of each other’s way. And it’s more than rival drivers who are commenting. Before the British Grand Prix, former world champion Damon Hill said that he also thought it was inevitable that an on-track incident would occur as the two teammates battle for a world title.
There’s certainly been no lack of times when the world title chase has turned teammates into bitter rivals. Certainly, Hamilton has been accused of being less than a model teammate himself, most famously by Fernando Alonso in Hamilton’s maiden season in Formula 1 back in 2007. However, both Hamilton and Button pointed to the Turkish Grand Prix as proof of their ability to race hard without putting each other in danger. If they can race hard and clean once, they say, they’ll be able to do it again.
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh has shown an uncanny ability to manage large egos during his short time with the team. It appears that as long as the Constructors’ Championship is in play, both Hamilton and Button will be willing to play nice and work toward a unified goal of a championship. But if the two are locked into a close point race for the Drivers’ Championship at the end of the season with the Constructors’ Championship already sewn up, all bets might be off.
Tags: