I think having no2 on his car will spur him on to prove he is no1

Year 1......equalled or beat a WDC
Year 2 ...completely destroyed Kovalainen
Year 3.......??

Liike if he didn't know that he is McLaren nº1 driver. LH is a McLaren product just like the new MPCXY_1222444CCC is. And if you know Mo Dennis, you'll know how much he loves to sell his products as the best in the world.

Year 3 ... ditto for year 2
Year 4 .....??

I honestly think Hamilton can beat anyone in the field in the same car.

But saying that, I think he'd have his hands full more with Kimi than Button. Jenson might gain a bit with his great consistancy, but I'd be surprised if he manages to out-pace Lewis more than a few times in the season.

I look forward to seeing if I'm correct, though!

With Kimi Hamilton would be free to be the star of the team, this will not happen with Button.

They'll fight for media attention and the fight on track will be pure dynamite, for better or worse. It's all a mystery really.

Anyway, they're better than the Ferrari duo in my opinion.

This will have to be seen... and I'm looking forward to it

I never saw Heikki deliberately crashing out of the race to let Hamilton win or Heikki pulling over for Lewis when Heikki was faster than him? And FIA didn't found any shred of evidence that Lewis was favored over Alonso which would have meant further penalities against Mclaren becaues Alonso had special protection from the FIA.

Quick question, Isnt it possible that part of the reason button would want to go to McLaren would be because Lewis is such a highly rated driver and arguably one of the best on the grid. You know the old phrase "to be the best you have got to beat the best". Maybe he wants to see how he compares vs hammy?

Though we would have to gain an all access pass to his brain to know if thats true. But i know if i was a formula one driver (Which im not or never would be but cant i dream? ) id personally go somewhere that had the best driver with an almost guarenteed good car just for the challenge.

If something isn't broken, don't fix it. Brawn GP/Mercedes is good, he's very succesfull there. I don't understand why he left in the first place. He's taking a big risk imo that isn't even worth it

Well he hasn't exactly left his contract ran out. Also were still waiting for it to be official, maybe hes just dipping his toe in the McLaren pool to get a bigger diving board in the Mercedies pool.

Fat load of good 'the challenge' did for Heikki's career didnt it? Reputation and career in tatters. Its bad enough that Lewis is quicker but Button is also new to the team and car, and will only have 8 days of testing before the start of the season, plus lewis is the clear team number 1 so he really doesnt have a hope.

Jenson does struggle with new cars (designs) agreed, but he quickly adapts, and I'm sure Lewis will actually help him.

I agree, especially because lewis has said in past interviews about how he looked up to Jenson and they appear to have a sold enough friendship thus far.

I guess a big factor about which of them is faster will be whether the car tends towards understeer or oversteer.

As I see it, their driving styles are polar opposite.

If Button starts moaning that there is too much oversteer, he may as well stay at home.

Lewis performs better when there is a number 2 on his car. His F1 career shows that.

though i'm not really a fan of Jenson or Lewis, but I think Lewis fan will be happier than ever now that Kimi ain't in F1. Moreover, we its sort of common knowledge that Hamilton is another class above Jenson, so it will be good to see Jenson getting thrashed by him, Hami will completely destroy jenson, lap by lap, race by race.

"His best future is with our team, where he has a good group around him, and there's a lot to be said for that. The logical thing would be for him to stay with us, but of course logic doesn't always prevail."

Coming from Ross Brawn, yes we all know what is the logical decision and that is to for Jenson to stay with Brawn.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80188

why? he's not Alonso, not his nemesis or anything.

Only some Alonso's fans think and hope that Janson will match Lewis. As well as only some Lewis fans can think that Massa will match Fernando. 2010 will turn to be Alonso vs Lewis with some minor fireworks at Ferrari and Macca, but a little bit more at Ferrari coz Felipe is such a crybaby. If the cars will be nearly equals I only see the Red Bull drivers(both very good IMO) to challenge Alonso and Lewis.

I just wait to see both Crybaby and Button beaten...

Yeah, the only time Lewis and raikonen got in a "fight" was after spa 2008 when Lewis said that raikonen didn't have the balls to brake late in the rain
Other than that they never really talked about each other

I don't actually think Fernando is Lewis's nemesis.
Really, who does Lewis, Alonso or Button talk about in a negative fashion as of late?
I see Jenson and Lewis getting on fine, chew me a new a**hole if I'm wrong, but I bet they'll be fine.

I think the forumers here are projecting their own mentalities onto these guys.....

Lewis is better than Jenson.

The Button / Brawn situation is close to history repeating itself.

Some British teams don't seem to have that much respect for the driver that wins the WDC for them, I seem to remember Williams giving Damon Hill the boot after winning the WDC (1996?)

The reports about Button leaving for Mclaren suggested a 3 year contract, even if Brawn are to match the Mclaren offer, I seriously doubt the offer of a 3 year contract will be included.

If KIMI is not available to Mclaren next year then Button is the next best thing under the prevailing circumstances. He will certainly be better than HEIKKI and the Mclaren cars will displaying nos 1&2 on their cars even if the no1 on Button's car will be nothing more than a mere decoration in real teams as far as the team is concerned afterall, he is being paid 50% of what LH is paid.

I was replying to a poster who said Lewis "fans" would be happy to see Raikkenon out of F1. So I was speaking for myself as a fan, not for Lewis of course. When I said nemesis, I don't mean Lewis and Fred hate each other, I'm sure they get along fine, but they're also competitors, and I feel, to Lewis, Fred is a special rival.

Brawn knows that everything was about the car in 2009 and 10 other drivers would've won the championship too with their car. That's why they don't need him.

Also, Hamilton will destroy JB, who is at the same level with HK as a racing driver.

Hey no worries, I wasn't referring to you (or anyone) in particular, I was just making my opinion heard after reading many posts in this thread.
Maybe the word "nemesis" tickled me into making a comment, but please take no offense, and don't feel you need to justify yourself, as I respect your opinion, love your avatar and generally enjoy your posts ;)
I don't think most of the drivers are 'generally' as petty as 'us' here on this forum

I still believe that's not the case. Even with Daimler money, they simply don't have resources to spend on keeping WDC in their rows, just like Mclaren simply didn't want to invest too much money for getting Kimi. Rosberg/Heidfeld duo for example would certianly do pretty good job for much less money.

About Hamilton destroying Button... its still to be seen if everything plays that way, but I'd give 75% odds that Hamilton will beat him.

My guess is that the difference between Hamilton and Button will be like the difference between Vettel and Webber. Quite close, but with the edge (and just the edge) going to Hamilton.

However. Stranger things do happen. I keep remembering how Prost, race to race, beat Lauda to a pulp in 1984. Qualifying, Racing, Prost was just better. But who was the champ at the end? Exactly.

I'm not sure about that. Kovy is pretty quick on a lap, he just can't drive the first lap on cool tyres in a lot of traffic, doesn't race all that instinctively, and can't straighten the car before applying the power but uses the classical smooth arc cornering style.

I've seen all those weaknesses in Jenson.

Lewis will win on most days.
I have to say though I still don't see Jense at Mclaren. I'm also sick to death of the British press going OTT. Maybe I shouldn't say this as I'm British and want to be a journalist...

Talk about current WDC taking No 1 to his new team, just to become (wanna bet?) a SECOND driver. It's sick.

You're entitled to your opinion, but

If Jenson was behnd the wheel of that McLaren in Monza 08 'd have a bet that Vettel wouldn't have won that race

He also would have scored more than 22 points last season IMO

In fairness, Kovalainen is a very, very good wet weather driver. Button is, too, but I'd argue Kovalainen is on his level in the wet, if not better.

Jenson will destroy Lewis given equal reatment. However i doubt that will be forthcoming.

Raikonnen already refused to join because of the hamilton veto on number 1 status. Hamiltons

According to a number of people at the time, he wasn't fighting hard enough. I'm just going on the words of people who were around him at the time.

It's well known he became a much more disciplined driver and person when he joined BAR. For instance, he dedicated himself to better fitness (so much so that he's arguably the most fit guy on the grid now), which is a very important determinant factor in a driver's performance.

He didn't "just barely" beat JV. He beat himself from the beginning and established himself a #1. Richards used that situation to dump JV.



Sure, he got beat in qualifying, which is why Rubens beat him from Silverstone onward. No argument there. My point is that he does have outstanding race pace, and when his qualifying is sorted, this is a major asset to have.



Piquet and Grosjean are hacks. They don't belong in the "three tenths" category because they're just not good enough to be in F1. Kaz is the same. Alguersuari may have some potential, but he was in the same category this year, given how out of his element he was.

The "three-tenths" rule, IMO, applies to the gap from the absolutely quickest guys (Hamilton, Vettel) to the average/midpack guys (Heikki, Fisi, etc.).

Kovalainen was not that far off of Hamilton in single-lap pace; probably .15-.2 of a second, at most. On occasion, he was quicker than Hamilton fuel-adjusted in Q3. His race pace left something to be desired, however.



If that's the case, then you shouldn't have dished it to me in the first place.

Why you feel the need to "dish it" is beyond me. There's no real benefit to doing so; you're not any more right or wrong in doing so.

Don't think you'll get many people agreeing with you on the first statement, but we will see, won't we.

You have nothing to backup your second statement.

Taken in entirety, it looks like you're trolling.

Here is Lewis being destroyed by Button in equal equipment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpUQY-zoFnE

His girl left him for Hammy back in the eighties I read somewhere...

If McLaren favour Hamilton over Button they will deserve the sh*tstorm they start in the media. I'm not a particular fan of either but I think that Hamilton will be the more successful of the two over the whole season, but it could be closer than many think.

Bear in mind, we don't know exactly how the McLaren 2010 car is going to behave on-track. The full tanks are going to change the aero design and engineering philosophy of the cars next year and it can't be guaranteed that the characteristics Hamilton likes in his car will definitely be there. The car may actually suit Button's driving style better. So they might be more evenly matched than people are expecting right now.

Your choice of username and your opinions are polar opposites.

I would bet gazillions that whatever the car is like it will have a strong front end. If it doesn't, they'll change it till it does.

Lewis will destroy Jenson. We will get a new perspective regarding Heikki.

I just hope people will not moan favoritism if Button says the car doesn't suit him because it's been a problem for him in the past in other teams. He can't drive around problems.

Agreed.

Now when Heikki is gone and Jenson joins, I´m afraid that the peace in the team will be at the same level as 2007.

I think so too. I hope Kovy's going to get a drive because he's not that bad at all.

I agree. I've said it many times: I think in years to come, people will look back on 2008-2009 at McLaren and it will reflect more on Lewis' ability than Heikki's lack of it. With most people, anyway. Perhaps next year we'll see if I'm right. Hopefully Heikki will get a drive elsewhere because he's good enough and he seems a nice guy; it'd be nice to see him with some success.

Oh dear. What will the Hammy fannyboys do when Jenson slaughters Lewis next year?? I dont think there is enough tall buildings in the world.

Im going to enjoy next season. Maybe a spot will open up at Force india that will welcome Hammy with open arms come 2011.

Nothing, I expect that, because a former F1 driver told me so. I trust in his expertise.

Are you deliberately trying to humiliate yourself in public?

HAHAHAH

Land of milk and Hunny,

You are too intellegent wasting time arguing with me. Leave that to the Bishy and the army of fanboys.