First of all, let me just say that I personally rate Button very highly. I used to be a bit of a Button detractor after he won his WDC in 09' (in what I thought was a bit of underwhelming performance, particularly in the latter part of the season), but this year he has thoroughly proven to me just how good of a all around driver he has become, especially when he feels comfortable with the car. He's certainly a worthy and formidible WDC contender in my book now...even if he does lack a bit of that imgrassable pure pace that say Vettel/Hamilton have, which can make all the difference in the world if you're out at the very front ,in the very best car
Considering Button finished
just behind the Hammy train in today's race, I think he did just fine really. Red Bull seemed to have the stronger car on race day, so asking much more from Button wasn't really all that realistic.
I feel that some people & the media tend to be too come and go on how they rate/praise drivers, and what they expect from them. When Hamilton is on his game and doesn't make mistakes, the general concesous is that he (still) is the slightly quicker driver on pure pace (particularly when tire deg. isn't an issue)....meaning he will generally finish ahead of Button (like today and on many other occasian in their ~ 2 year tenureship) as long as he keeps his neck out of trouble. With that said, Hamilton doesn't seem to be quite as strong as Button in other areas (particularly in staying out of trouble with cars around him and staying cool when under pressure) and certainly hasn't been as consistant as Button has in terms of extracting the maximum result possible in the last few races...which is something (just a few bad races) I feel has jaded many peoples perspective of what the two drivers are capable of.
It must be remembered that a lot of drivers have their ups and downs throughout their career, and at the moment Lewis is certainly at a very low point in terms of his on track driving, luck, and general content/happiness, while Button is certainly at the highest point of his career in terms of how well he is driving...so a lot people seem to get stuck in the moment and only notice both extremes. I certainly feel that there will come a point (likely quite soon) where Lewis will pick himself up off the ground (today was certainly a decent start), and we will be left with a wiser, more level headed individual, with all of the pace and talent that we know he has always had. Once that happens, and Hamilton can get some of his consistancy back and more, Button will certainly have his hands full.
