Jenson: A Worthy Champion?

So its that time of the year again – the time when we’ve new Formula1 champions – driver and team. That time of the year, when the addicted fan realizes that there are at least 6 months before he gets his dose of live Formula1!! Past 2-3 seasons, the A1 GP would fill in this void, however little, but this year they’re struggling to even start; but that’s a separate discussion. 

2009 has been an interesting season to say the least. We’ve seen new teams lead from the front, old timers struggle and fight their way back. We’ve also seen the back-of-grid team [Force India] elevate themselves to the mid-grid fights and consistently so; and as my fellow racing friend Aditya Patel from India reminds me, a season where barring one team – all the teams have made it to the podium atleast once! Better luck next time, Scuderia Toro Rosso! Without having to re-visit the history books – the statistic itself speaks for itself. The 2009 season has been an interesting one indeed. 

Before the F1 fans could digest the rags to riches [in terms of points and wins!] stories of the Brawn GP Team – we have seen them clinch both the titles this season with relative ease [in comparison to the past few seasons!] We’ve seen Jenson Button clinch his first ever Formula1 Drivers World Championship – hopefully not his last ever! We’ve also seen Ross Brawn claim his 8th World Championship!! Yes, that’s the record [2 with Benetton – 5 with Ferrari and now one with his own team!] 

We’ve seen Adrian Newey’s design finally come to the front – whether they could have won the title if not having given up three quarters into the season can only be left to speculation. But I would surely to hear Sebastian Vettel’s take on this! The young German prodigy has more than proved his worth to Red Bull. 

Though the 2009 title fight went down to the penultimate round of the 2009 season – the battle fight wasn’t as interesting to say the least. Yes, there’s an interesting quote that often crops up in the racing world – to win the race at the slowest possible pace! And to me it only seemed that Jenson took this quote a little too seriously! 

After showing blistering pace in the early quarter of the season and clinching 6 back to back victories his mid-season slump to a somewhat recovery in the end of the season didn’t leave much to be desired with – maybe his title attack too lacked the ‘Schumacheresque’ approach. That he won of course only throws all these comparisons and calculations out of the window!