13/01/2008
NEWS STORY
It is to be hoped that Jenson Button is not about to take up the mantle of fellow British F1 racer David Coulthard, and begin each season with the rallying call, "this is my/our year".
However, that would appear to be the case following the Honda driver's appearance at an exhibition in Birmingham yesterday.
"I think we will be a lot closer to the front in 2008, and in 2009 we have to be fighting for the world championship," he told race fans. "If we can get to that position with a good car, then this team will win the world championship. As a team, we are very, very strong," he added.
Despite the arrival of Ross Brawn, the architect of title wins for both Benetton and Ferrari, it is going to take something very special in 2008 for the team to lay to rest the ghost of 2007, a season in which the two highlights were fifth in the Chinese GP and the appearance (as team guests) of the Beckhams at Silverstone. Even then, David and Victoria appeared more interested in rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton than the 'Myearthdream' mobile.
Speaking of Brawn's arrival, Button, who finished fifteenth in the Drivers' Championship, his worst finish since 2001, said: "I'm so happy that we've got Ross. When he first walked into the team, there was the biggest round of applause I've ever seen.
"On his own he's not going to turn the team around," he admitted, "but I think that everyone is positive and doing a great job. He's fitted in quicker than everyone imagined and the way of working in the team has changed a lot already."
Despite the misery of 2007 - teammate Rubens Barrichello failed to score a single point, the first timer this has happened in a fifteen season career - Button insists the team can, and will, learn from its mistakes.
"If we'd had a reasonable year, we might have carried on in the direction we were going," he said, comparing 2007 to the tail end of 2006, when he strung together a string of impressive results including his maiden F1 win. "But after such a bad year, we've realised we do need to change something and we have done that now."