The minute Jenson Button crossed that line to win the 2009 Formula 1 world championship, people were asking the question, who is a better driver, Lewis Hamilton or Britain’s new champ, Jenson Button?
The facts
| Race starts | Race wins | Career Points | Championships | |
| Jenson Button | 171 | 7 | 321 | 1 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 51 | 11 | 256 | 1 |
Who is better?
Put simply, they are two very different drivers. Going on the raw facts and figures, Jenson Button averages about 2 points per race, whereas Lewis Hamilton averages around 5 points per race.
However, those statistics are slightly unfair. This is because Lewis Hamilton walked into F1 with McLaren and has had a decent car ever since. On the other hand, Jenson Button did not have the mentoring with an F1 team from the age of 9 and therefore didn’t walk in to F1 with a good car. In fact, this year is the first time Jenson has ever had a car capable of winning a championship, and he took full advantage.
Button won the world championship in the opening races of the season, and took full advantage of the double-deck diffuser and any other technical features the Brawn had and other cars didn’t, and while he was consistent throughout the second half of the season, it wasn’t exactly championship winning form.
Lewis Hamilton on the other hand came in to the season with an absolutely appaling car, and his positions in the opening races of the season were 7, 6, 4, 7, 12, 13, 16, 18. However despite these poor results, he turned it around in the second half of the season and used every inch of talent, power and speed to pick up good results and wins.
In conclusion I feel that Lewis Hamilton would be a better driver in a poorer car, whereas Jenson Button would be better in a championship fight. This is because Lewis Hamilton will give everything and use everything he has at his disposal, to try and get the best result he can, meaning he occasionally puts a car into the wall. Button however is quite the opposite. He is a silky smooth driver that does what he has to do and very rarely takes risks and crashes. I think Hamilton has the better racing instinct and raw talent, even if he is more likely to crash now and again.
Button is more consistent and does what needs to be done, but he needs a good car to perform whereas Lewis Hamilton can get good results even in a poor car by squeezing everything he and it has.
How the two drivers would compare competing in the same car against each other I don’t know, but if the rumours are true, we soon could have the answer.
