Next British F1 Champion?

[the real deal]

Button has the problem that his potential has been hyped up so much that he has been expected to win for the past 4 years. Due to this not happening it has given him a mental block which, along with the state of the car is stopping him winning races.
I think that the next British Champion will be a Local boy to me anyway. Lewis Hamilton. Champonship leader in GP2 by a mile and winner of the last 3 consecutive races including Monaco. Mclaren sponsored driver since he was in carting and in line to partner Alonso at Mclaren next season. This guy is in his first season of GP2 and at Silverstone won the first race from second on the grid and then even more impressive, won the second from 8th and finished with a 10 second lead over the promoted second place finisher of Adam Caroll.
This guy is quick and if the Mclaren is up to par next year, he will be winning races before Button.

[henk4]

best thing to do with him is NOT to drown him in expectations. JB was obviously not able to deal with that.

[fpv_gtho]

I think its too late for the hype around him. I think its a shame though that Ron Dennis has already stated he'll wait till the end of the year to test him.

[zeta]

button is still a capable contender, but theres stiff comp, yet he's up there. know one else can beat renault, mclaren, and ferrari, yet he has the team constructors in 4th. Its really BAR hondas fault in making him look bad, unforunately

[Coventrysucks]

Due to this not happening it has given him a mental block

You know that for a fact do you?

It wouldn't be to do with the fact that he hasn't had a capable car at all...

in line to partner Alonso at Mclaren next season.

Not if JPM has a contract...

Dennis has said that Hamilton has a future in F1, but has not been committed to say that, even outside of a rookie season, Hamilton will definately drive for McLaren.

Idle speculation, Nothing more

[MrKipling]

I'm not sure why everyone is making such a big deal about Hamilton winning races in GP2 and what-not: pretty much every F1 driver (in contention for top seats at least) has dominated lower classes - it really is nothing new or special.

This guy is quick and if the Mclaren is up to par next year, he will be winning races before Button.

Or put another way:

The guy is quick and if the Honda is up to par next year, he will be winning races before Barrichello

It's all in the car.

[lightweight]

This thread is the reproduction of the latest press releases on the topic.

[MrKipling]

^^ so why not try to make an original contribution rather than whining?

ANd which PRs are you talking about exactly?

[RazaBlade]

To be honest, its a price that comes with the British media, any fellow from our nation that even has the slightest bit of skill, the papers all make it out to be like they'll dominate the world, I guess thats their job, but its annoying at times. Look at Tim Henman, Jenson Button, the England football team (although I actually want to believe the hype). It just seems that any sportsperson who gets to an even decent stage then has to deal with the papers already saying they will do this and this.

[MrKipling]

Yeah - it's the build em up to knock em down tactic (first championed by NME i think )

Having said that, Button is very very very good - it's just easy to get caught in the uneducated hype you read in the papers! Not that I'm saying you do of course Raza, but I guess you know what I mean.

[Jack_Bauer]

Personally I have doubts whether LH will be in a race seat at McLaren next season. Dennis has already stated that he won't be able to test before the end of the season due to all the testing slots being devoted to car development rather than driver development. I think it's more likely that Hamilton will either end up replacing Pedro de la Rosa as the team's 3rd driver OR there's a chance RD might be able to wangle a way for him to get a drive at somewhere like Midland F1 for a season of F1 practice.

I have no doubt that both Button and Hamilton are hugely talented drivers but Honda will have to turn around their fortunes dramatically in the next couple of years if they're to challenge for victories and World Championships. Therefore if Hamilton can get into a race seat at McLaren within the next 2 years then he may well be winning races before Button gets the chance to. With regards to actually winning the WDC then I think Hamilton's biggest problem will be his likely teammate Alonso. Alonso will certainly be the no.1 driver for the forseeable future with Hamilton being the second driver for a good while before he gets his shot. Button seems to be the no.1 driver at Honda and if they can build a car good enough then you can be sure the team will be throwing everything behind Button to win the championship.

I'd say that in the long term Hamilton has the best chance of becoming the next British WDC, but if Honda can build a good enough car for Button then he clearly has the talent to deliver the title back to England.

With regards to Hamilton and the media hype there was a very good article on Pitpass yesterday - http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=28355

EDIT: If you wanna see what all the fuss is about then this is the spectacular move that took him from 4th to 2nd in th Maggots/Becketts complex http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELxqpcB3vjo&search=gp2

This is the move that eventually won him the 2nd Silverstone race - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u1kaHzaMiE&search=gp2

[MrKipling]

Honda will have to turn around their fortunes dramatically in the next couple of years if they're to challenge for victories and World Championships. Therefore if Hamilton can get into a race seat at McLaren within the next 2 years then he may well be winning races before Button gets the chance to.

A very good point but...

Alonso will certainly be the no.1 driver for the forseeable future [at McLaren]

Which is historically a very bad place to be, regardless of a driver's 'quality' (god - I've been watching too much football!), and they'd certainly want to put most of their resources into the (most likely) defending World Champion

Button seems to be the no.1 driver at Honda

I'm not so sure, Bazza has the stripe, and the way his and Button's relative performance has skewed since the start of the season (they've basically swopped places in the field, haven't they?) would suggest that the development of the car is being geared more towards Barrichello's needs than Jenson's.

if they can build a car good enough then you can be sure the team will be throwing everything behind Button to win the championship.

OUT WITH FRY!

I'd say that in the long term Hamilton has the best chance of becoming the next British WDC, but if Honda can build a good enough car for Button then he clearly has the talent to deliver the title back to England.

Yup.

EDIT: If you wanna see what all the fuss is about then this is the spectacular move that took him from 4th to 2nd in th Maggots/Becketts complex http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELxqpcB3vjo&search=gp2

Utterly, utterly spectacular

[magracer]

Hamilton's pass was amazing but you have to give credit to Piquet Jr and the other guy for being 100% clean. Nice not to see F1 type "this is my line" (or my parking space ) crap in GP2. The pitpass article should be read... I've been seen Hamilton for about 10 years in the news but those passes at silverstone made me a fan.

There are two things against Hamilton ATM. He hasn't been an F1 tester , and McLaren isn't the place to be right now... For those reasons I think he should spend a year testing before getting a race seat.

Also in the news, F1-Live has Montoya out of McLaren and with no seat to land upon...

[Max Power]

I think Button would drive differently if he had won a race in 2004.Everyone is waiting for his first win and the longer it takes,the bigger the pressure.It's not easy for him.He surely lacks confidence(how many years was his last win??).He starts to wonder if it's the car or him and if a race driver starts to doubt,he has lost already.
Alonso won in 2003 and knew right away that if he has a good car,he's capable of winning races.I'm sure that helped him alot.

Hamilton is a different story.He's very impressive in the GP2.He wins races so easily and it's not like he has a bad team mate,far from it.The level of the other drivers is very high too.So,I think a win in the GP2 means a lot.
Dennis has been following and helping him for years now.The support of Dennis gives a lot of confidence to Hamilton.Hamilton thinks that if Dennis gives him so much help,it must mean something(and he's right).

I would bet on Hamilton.

[VtecMini]

All this writing off of Button is poppycock. Damon Hill was in his thirty three before he struck a blow in F1. Jenson's twenty six and he's got six years experience under his belt already. With a good car under him, he'd be as competetive as anyone else at the pointy end of the grid.