Jenson Button

Twelve months on, Button appears to be yesterday’s man. He’s not only lost his position as Britain’s number one driver to Lewis Hamilton, but also suffered what he openly admits was a ‘totally disastrous’ year with a Honda team in freefall.

The outfit was one of the successes of 2006, picking up 86 championship points. But in 2007, its tally was a mere six – all of them bagged by Button. “It goes without saying that I’m not sad to see the back of the 2007 season,” admitted Button.

He has described his unwieldy and sluggish racer as “a complete dog”, and threatened to quit the team at the end of 2008 if things don’t take a drastic turn for the better.

“I’m not interested in racing like this any more. While I would love to take the title with Honda, I’ve got to start winning. If I don’t, then I have to be ruthless,” he said.

“There’s an option in my contract, which means we can all sit down and discuss the future at the end of next season. If things don’t work out, that is exactly what I’ll be doing. I’m not saying I expect to win the world championship, but I do want us to make a dramatic improvement.”

It would be hard for Honda to do any worse in 2008. The RA107 wasn’t simply off the pace, it was unreliable and downright scary to drive at times. The story goes that most of the aerodynamic work was carried out before the team’s new wind tunnel had been properly calibrated. Whatever the excuses, the car was an absolute dud.

In a concerted effort to stop the rot, the outfit has been on a massive recruitment drive, wooing several key players away from rival grand prix outfits. And now, it has pulled off a major coup by revealing that former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn will become team principal.

The 52-year-old Englishman, fresh from a 12-month sabbatical away from the sport, is widely hailed as the technical mastermind behind Michael Schumacher’s seven world champ­ion­ships at Benetton and Ferrari.

And with such an impressive track record – plus no shortage of resources – Brawn will be expected to transform Honda into a major force. “I’m looking forward to helping it rediscover its winning ways,” confirmed Brawn. “Honda has a proud heritage in F1, and the opportunity to help the team realise its potential represents a fantastic challenge for me.

“The squad has already done a great job of considering its future by putting in place both the people and first-class engineering resources to achieve its ambitions.”

He also paid tribute to Button, “Jenson has some exceptional qualities and I’ve always admired him. Now, I’m keen to start working with him. He deserves some success after the time he has been in F1. Let’s hope we can give it to him.”

But it will take Brawn time to turn the team around. Next year’s car has already been designed, so Button may have to wait for fully competitive equipment. In the meantime, he must keep proving himself. By employing Brawn, Honda has shown it’s willing to splash the cash, and there’s no doubt it will be in the market for a proven winner should Jenson fail to meet the team’s increasing expectations.

To be fair, Button did little wrong in 2007 and, despite his woeful results, he made something out of nothing when presented with an opportunity. He excelled in various wet races, when his smooth driving eclipsed the shortcomings of his car. “Fighting from further back on the grid was quite fun, particularly in Turkey, Italy and China, where I managed to do a lot of overtaking,” he said, in an obvious effort to unearth some positives from the season. “It helps to develop your racecraft for the future.“

“A year like the one we’ve had brings out the real character of a team. We’ve had to pull together, keep motivated and try as hard as we can, even though the performance of the car was far from what we had expected. We know where we went wrong with the chassis and the team will be back at the factory over the winter working hard to give Rubens and myself a more competitive car for next year.

“For my part, I will be focusing as always on my physical fitness and preparation for the new season – and we will hope to make a far more positive start to 2008.” Fingers crossed, Santa Claus comes up trumps...