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Probably not, because McLaren will allow Sergio to take points off of him.

Totally untrue. 2012 has shown that in F1 today that consistently quick race pace is far more important for a win than getting pole position or a front row start.

And on qualy days Button usually has been within 0.300s of Hamilton's time, which is fairly good.

Who's got the pop corn ?

Of course he won't he's a mediocre driver and McLaren will be fairy cakes without the 8 tenths Lewis brings to the team. Oh and Perez is a bad qualifier and will crash a lot.

(Thats how it goes ain't it? )

Totally untrue. 2012 has shown that in F1 today that consistently quick race pace is far more important for a win than getting pole position or a front row start.

He beat Webber and Hamilton last year so lets wait and see.

Really? 10 out of 19 races this season have been won from pole, 15 out of 19 from the front row. Qualifying at the front is still the key to the big 25 point results and if Button is starting in 3rd, 4th or 5th against cars with comparable race pace then he'll be getting the podiums but not the wins.

Alonso has three wins this season, one in wet conditions, one taken from pole thanks to a wet Saturday and one because the race leader retired. You can't rely on those sorts of freak results to win a championship. Even with those slices of luck Alonso is likely to be pipped by Vettel, a driver whose resurgence over the last six races is derived entirely from being able to qualify on or near pole and then drive off into the distance. Hamilton, the driver with the most poles, would be leading the championship without McLaren's Operation 'Shoot ourselves in the foot.'

Alonso has driven an almost flawless season with two pole positions and a lot of things going in his favour (weather, a subservient teammate and, most importantly, blunders by the teams of his main rivals), yet it still doesn't look like being enough. And frankly, Button is no Alonso. So yes, I can assure you my original statement: "you need to get more than one pole a year to be world champion" remains true, although perhaps I should have qualified it by saying "in this era of F1."

Thing is, Jenson's not as bad a qualifier as some make out. It's just that Lewis is better than him. Without Lewis there, though, I see no reason why Jenson won't be able to do well: he's a proven race winner; he's shown he can be very good strategically on his day; he's a much better overtaker than people give him credit for; and points-wise he's done almost as well as Lewis at McLaren, despite Lewis being better than him in qualifying. McLaren have a very good car, and with next year being an evolution of this year's he stands an excellent chance of running at the front, as long as they don't fall prey to the same mishaps and reliability issues as this year

Thing is, Jenson's not as bad a qualifier as some make out. It's just that Lewis is better than him.

Is it possible absolutely.....but after 3yrs in Mclaren theres is no evidense that he can fight consistently week in week out to sustain a tittle challenge.

Button main problem apart from being a 2nd tier driver is he lack ambition and fire in the belly,yes he will push a bit to try and beat Lewis.But thats a negative motivation fuel by more by sticking it to Lewis
Button will be happy to finish 19th if it meant Lewis is in 20th,he is the only champion that think 2nd place is a great achievement...go ask KIMI....SO THAT GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HIS MIND SET

the main challenge for Jenson is can he maintain any kind of hunger to succed beyond beating Lewis,will he give it a go,and as soon as he dont have the best package recoil back into mediocrity ,settling for the odd podium...and proclaim again that 2014 with the changes is his real target

But most importantly you cant discount the The Lewis effect or The LEWIS LEADERSHIP,which constantly pulling Button out of his comfort zone.today was a perfect example of lewis leadership by showing Button once again that there is another second in the car.that then forces Button to levels he otherwise would not go.
iF Lewis was not in that car today ,Button would have been content in 4th place a second off the real potential of the car.

And worst of all he would have been very happy with that,just being among the top runners

Sorry to all the bashers but for next year at least he has more of a chance than Lewis, Massa and probably Webber!

Thing is, Jenson's not as bad a qualifier as some make out. It's just that Lewis is better than him. Without Lewis there, though, I see no reason why Jenson won't be able to do well: he's a proven race winner; he's shown he can be very good strategically on his day; he's a much better overtaker than people give him credit for; and points-wise he's done almost as well as Lewis at McLaren, despite Lewis being better than him in qualifying. McLaren have a very good car, and with next year being an evolution of this year's he stands an excellent chance of running at the front, as long as they don't fall prey to the same mishaps and reliability issues as this year

I was nodding my head in agreement with you till I came to the underlined part and this is where I have a beef with JB fans and in your case those who dont like Lewis. Trying to imply that qualifying results do not matter by pointing out the overall points this year is where you couldnt be more wrong. The reason they are so close together on points is down to McLaren reliability and team cock-ups. Keeping everything else the same, if JB had outqualified Lewis for good measure this year, you would actually see him outscore Lewis by a good margin.

I see your point and, to be fair, without Hamilton there Button would have five poles this season (assuming his alternate teammate wasn't his match in qualifying). I don't want to get into the "even on points over three years" debate, it seems to run in circles. My main thought on the matter is that the points system is the designated way of assessing who succeeds and who doesn't in F1; it doesn't mean we can't use other measures to decide where drivers are relative to each other (certainly when you consider how reliant they are on their machinery). What I miss from Button is that little spark of magic that Hamilton sometimes produces. That's what I feel is required to take the fight to Vettel in that Red Bull (at least in 2013) and possibly Alonso in the Ferrari, and ultimately why if the cars are equal between those three drivers I believe Button will come out third best.

Blah blah Jenson inferior blah blah... and in this race Jenson is doing clearly better than Hamilton...

I think he Will get the preferential treatment Hamilton should have got this season. The car will be built to suit him. its about time Mclaren drop this equal driver policy. Its not working.

Apparently they havent dropped this policy since the days of Senna, so why start now?

I guess David Coulthard didn't get that memo.

People around here really do like to go with "Lewis is better" "when Lewis leaves no one will push him" "no desire" someone even had the balls to say Lewis Leadership!

what seems common is that most think he cannot be consistent enough, 2011 he had 8 podiums and a 4th in the last 9 races.
to play the What if game: If not for Vettel Jenson would have been champion last year and his teammate was Lewis!, don't think that is possible? then don't say Lewis would have been champion this year IF not for DNFs.

Motivation coming from Lewis? well always having a challenging teammate MAY (sometimes things end sour) push you forward, the same for every driver on the grid. but where was Lewis pushing Jenson last year? he was consistently behind. Jenson's win in Canada, Lewis was long gone and Jenson was 30 seconds behind the last car. Motivation?


Given the right machinery he can be WDC again

Apparently they havent dropped this policy since the days of Senna, so why start now?

The bolded is completely incorrect, they finished 7-7 when both finished, won 3 races each. Even in the middle on Jensons great run in the second half Lewis still soundly beat him in most of the races he avoided penalties and collisions in, namely Abu Dhabi and Korea.

most?

in the last 9 races (the second half you mentioned) Lewis beat him in only those 2! how is that "soundly beating him in most of the races". It is not Jenson's fault Lewis had those penalties or collisions, actually Lewis only had himself to blame at the time.

now how can someone question Jenson's motivation and say he is only interested in beating Lewis. actually IIRC last year his aim was to outscore Vettel in the second half (not overall of course), Hamilton was having a bad year and Jenson for those last 9 races was only outscored by Vettel

Its amazing how fickle some F1 fans are, Hulk and Lewis don't take one another out today and JB comes home 3rd the new found optimism in here would be half as much. A win is great for his confidence but does not paper over the cracks of a bad season for Jenson, admitted by himself. No world champion could be pleased with his season especially off the back of out scoring Lewis in 2011 on merit.

My worry as a Mclaren fan is that 5 of his 8 Mclaren wins he has needed wet/dry races and some excellent gambles on tyres. It does not rain enough to make a title challenge out of that.

Yes fickle.

another what if, with no safety car out Jenson and Hulkenberg would have probably lapped Lewis. no point discussing either case as we don't know what could have happened in any situation.

he has had 5 wins in changeable conditions which is one of his strength i admit. but the other 3 wins were very dominant dry wins, and last year as you know he was very good in the dry in the second half, beating the highly regarded Lewis so it certainly not that dry running is his weakness but more that changeable conditions is a strength.

He also admitted this year was not the best for him, he had 3 excellent wins but lacked consistency and given how he is known as "Mr. consistent" then this season may just be a fluke in that. + a bad season with 3 wins is not so bad.

I am also not trying to spark the Jenson vs Lewis debate by saying the following, you say that it doesn't rain enough in a season to mount a tittle challenge, so if Jenson was a bad dry weather driver the surely over 3 years he would not be even close to scoring the same as Lewis as "It does not rain enough to make a title challenge out of that". but that is not the case.

The mere fact that this question is even being speaks volumes.

You are right its not Jenson fault he had those penalties, he took full advantage. But what happens when Lewis stops getting those penalties? 2012. He completely out performed him.

The motivation stuff is a load of tripe, both drivers race to finish as high as possible all the time.

And yes my statement holds. He finished ahead twice. Spa he retired way ahead of JB, Monza Schumacher ran Lewis off track allowing JB passed subsequently getting Lewis stuck behind MS again as he pitted as soon as Lewis passed him.

Singapore, Japan and Brazil 2011 JB was simply the better driver in that 9 race block.

India Lewis looked a lot quicker but the grid penalty and subsequent Massa incident ruined his race.

I only raised this in relation to you saying Jenson was consistently ahead of Lewis, which is nonsense.

The first half of 2011 Lewis was a long way ahead of Jenson and theres not "ifs", he was simply quicker just like Jenson was in that block of 3 races mentioned above.