Button is afraid of losing his first place

After a difficult Grand Prix, in which the Briton could only take two unfortunate small points, Jenson Button fears that his first place in the world championship will be wiped out in just a few races unless… Brawn GP pulls out from the bottom and understands the reasons for the recent failures.

The Briton had hoped that the short length of the Hungaroring track and the hot weather in Hungary would help him fight against the comeback of Red Bull Racing, but tire issues once again left the Brawn GP behind, fighting for the last point-scoring positions.

A concern entirely justified by the driver leading the championship standings.

When Autosport asks if his 18.5-point advantage is sufficient, Button replies: « Of course not. I lost 15 points to Webber over the last three races, which is huge. »

« It’s 5 points per race. This means he will be ahead of me in approximately 4 races, and there are 7 left. It’s certainly not comfortable, but I can’t do much at the moment unless I analyze the race data, which is unfortunate because we have to wait two weeks [due to the factory shutdown]. »

The Briton adds: « We need to solve this problem because we are leading the championship, but it is inevitable that they will overtake us if the Brawn continues as it is. It’s like wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, knowing that when you reach the mountain stages, you will be useless and overtaken. »

The comparison with the Tour de France is harsh, but upon reflection, not only is Brawn no longer winning, but it is also experiencing significant difficulties in “managing” and securing points that could prove very important at the end of the season.

Button claims that his team does not have answers at the moment on why their early season dominance has stopped – but he has faith in the team and hopes that his team will resolve the issues in order to retain their first place.

« They have done great things with this car, and throughout the first part of the season, we have continuously added updates and improved the car » explains Button.

« We have made steps forward and we saw it in Barcelona. And the last two major changes, I cannot see them as worse. It’s not something that could upset the car. It was supposed to improve the car. »

Jenson Button has never approached the second half of a season leading the drivers’ standings, and it is clear that he has never been so close to becoming the world champion. Every Grand Prix is important, but for Brawn GP, each Grand Prix shows that the BGP 001 is losing performance. Button doesn’t want to let the title slip away…