Such is the nature of F1 that if a team wants to be competitive, it must employ the best drivers it can to help secure the constructors championship, yet the single minded nature of all racers means they are gunning for the drivers championship, hoping to win at their team-mates expense.
Each team take their own approach. McLaren for example have a long history of putting the two best drivers on the grid, putting them in identical cars and letting them race, while Red Bull chief Christian Horner recently admitted he was glad to have two drivers at different stages of their career, although even that couldn’t stop Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber’s very public falling out last year.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have been very evenly matched this season, at least before the Chinese Grand Prix, but the feeling that Button is a number two driver waiting to happen is inescapable. Button appears to have fixed his qualifying issue that dogged him last year and moved him closer to Hamilton, but make no mistakes this is Hamilton’s team and Button is just a very welcome guest.
The pair were involved in some very hard but equally fair wheel to wheel racing in Shanghai, with Hamilton getting the better of the exchange this time round. Button will be disappointed that having out-qualified his team-mate and led the race having taken Sebastian Vettel off the line, he was beaten comprehensively by Hamilton in the end.
Bemoaning his lack of grip in the rear tyres (although pulling into the wrong pit box will have hardly helped) the 2009 champion could also count his pit strategy that left him at the mercy of Hamilton, who had conserved an extra set from qualifying, as one of the main reasons for his downfall. His reputation as man who can take advantage if conditions or a situation changes quickly continues to grow, but doubts grow over his ability to match Hamilton on terms of speed and most crucially talent.
Both drivers made great play about their equality in an interview with the BBC before the first race of the season, saying there was no favouritism, and that is believable. But it will be interesting to see what will happen if Hamilton is still in the title race with Button slightly adrift as he was last year with the ban on team orders lifted for this season.
If Button finds himself ahead of his team-mate in that situation, McLaren’s willingness to let the pair race and operate on a level playing field would be tested to the max.
They will hope that won’t be the case, but if it is, the friendly exterior which is the over-riding feature in the McLaren garage could soon disappear, and be replaced by something different altogether.
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