Jenson Button and Susan Boyle have at least one thing in common. They both struggled for years in obscurity despite having some not inconsiderable talent. Yet, unlike SuBo, JeBu (Yes, I’m laying claim to that one if a Japanese restaurant in West London hasn’t already) appears to be chasing his dream through to a victorious conclusion. Judging by his performance in Turkey last Sunday, it would take more than the British public to stop him. They wouldn’t be able to catch him.
Button dominated Turkey in a fashion not seen since the Ottomans. Despite missing out on pole, he took advantage of a mistake by Sebastian Vettel on lap one and never looked back. Corner followed perfect corner. Each apex touched, he would sail off towards the next without putting so much as a tire-tread out of place. He was impervious. The car, too, it must be said, was in astonishing shape. Jenson could barely contain his gushing praise to the team once the race was complete.
His team mate, however, was not so happy.
Rubens Barrichello endured a torrid start to proceedings, practically going backwards at the start and slipping down the grid. He found himself first battling with Heikki Kovalainen in the frankly dreadful Mclaren, and then, after an untimely spin, jousting further down the pack with Kovalainen’s team mate Lewis Hamilton. Barrichello later retired with gearbox trouble, and claimed that the car’s rev limiter was activating on the straights and preventing him from overtaking. There were ambiguous rumblings from the aging Brazilian after the race about his team’s ‘bad luck’ falling only on one side.
Lewis himself must be absolutely seething. Mclaren’s failure to improve their already sluggish car left him completely powerless to take the fight to the season’s leaders. So slow was Hamilton’s Mclaren that it could not fend off Nelson Piquet despite full use of the KERS boost system. Mclaren will be ashamed of themselves. It is not hard to make a Formula One car go fast in a straight line.
As for the Brawns, we have perhaps not seen one car so dominant since the Mansell-piloted Williams-Renault of 1992. Then, too, it was driven by a man who might have won a championship or two more given the right machinery and less bad luck. Jenson might not have the raw genius of Mansell, but he is proving to be every bit as much the technical master. Silverstone awaits.
