Lets be honest, the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship has been absolutley brilliant from the word go... well since Australia at least. And with four races to go, we have five drivers all vying for the title whilst Red Bull and McLaren are battling for the Constructors. Red Bull however seem to me to be the favourites to win this.
But what will the legacy of the five drivers be if they were to win the 2010 World Drivers Championship? Where better to start than with the World Champion himself, Jenson Button.
After his shock world title win in 2009, Jenson Button was one of the hottest properties in Formula 1 again. However, his move to McLaren to be team mates with his predecessor, Lewis Hamilton raised more than a few eyebrows. Button cited he wanted a new challenge after spending seven years at Brackley which saw him claim his first pole, podium, win and eventually World Championship. However, it became clear that with Mercedes taking over the Brawn team, and the imminent return of Michael Schumacher to F1, Button may well have been pushed out rather than him leaving on his own accord.
Many within the paddock questioned his deicision to leave a team centred around him. Eddie Irvine was the harshest critic of all saying Hamilton was going "to blow Button away" in 2010. The great Sir Jackie Stewart also questioned the World Champions choice saying it was a mistake to join a team centred around Hamilton.
As we reach the season end, Button has already recorded two wins for McLaren in Australia and China and has scored podiums in Turkey, Canada, Europe and Italy. He is currently 5th in the standings, 25 points behind leader Mark Webber of Red Bull and he is looking like the driver most likely to be the first of the top 5 to drop out of contention.
However, if he was to pull an amazing comeback and win his second straight title, where would this leave the Frome Flyer?
Button is already 8th on the All time list of highest points scorers, ahead of greats such as Mansell, Stewart, Clark and Hill (all be it this is thanks to this season) and he is quickly closing in on David Coulthard to become the highest scoring British Formula 1 driver of all time.
No British driver has ever won the Formula 1 World drivers title two years running and if he was to acheive this, then he will almost certainly be remembered as one of the best British drivers of all time if he isn't already. His combination of speed and the elegant smoothness with which he drives is a pleasure to watch, something he did masterfully at the beginning of 2009. He also has a very clever racing brain which saw him pull off two unexpected victories this year and he has kept Hamilton very honest. In my view, he has another championship in him, if not two, but its not going to be easy.
His legacy if he did clinch the title would be that of the rebel who pulled his career out of the gutter and made himself a hero. He seems to have put his playboy years behind him and he his knuckling down to racing and that can only be a good thing for the rest of his career as he pursues multiple World Championships.
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