Lewis Hamilton leaves Jenson Button trailing

It is the tale of two careers. They started as Formula One firecrackers, sizzling and sparkling as two of Britain's most exciting prospects in a generation. But whereas one set off like a rocket on a trajectory to a World Championship, the other has fizzled out.
For Lewis Hamilton, the new year will bring more wealth and the chance to defend his title; for Jenson Button, it could bring early retirement and membership of a club he never dreamt he would belong to - the dole queue.
The parallels between what should have been the remaining British drivers on the Formula One grid next season, before the demise of Honda, Button's team, are close. Both came from humble backgrounds, driven on by ambitious fathers prepared to give up everything for their sons. Both came from broken homes, both missed out on school life, both were prodigies in karting and both burst on to the Formula One stage, where they were hailed as talents as great as any seen in the sport.
Before they were out of their motor racing nappies, they had autobiographies in the shops, to the derision of their peers. Chat-show regulars, jet-set lifestyles, moves to tax havens, glamorous girlfriends and the inevitable envy and criticism that followed have marked their short sporting lives.
Yet the careers of Hamilton and Button, born five years apart, are separated by one significant factor: luck. Hamilton stepped from obscurity and into a car that could win races, leading to his World Championship triumph this year in only his second season. In 35 starts, the 23-year-old has won nine races for McLaren Mercedes.
In nine seasons, Button has not had a set of wheels capable of winning a prize at a school fête. In only his second grand prix, with Williams in 2000, he became the youngest points-scorer, aged 20, in Formula One history, finishing sixth at the Brazilian Grand Prix, one of the most demanding races in the calendar. He went on to finish eighth in the championship.
In 2004, the year in which Button drove near flawlessly, with two pole positions - including a spectacular effort in Monaco - Ferrari produced arguably the most dominant car in Formula One history, with Michael Schumacher winning 13 races and Rubens Barrichello, his team-mate, two. Button had to settle for third in the World Championship.
The single race victory of Button's career - at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix - was testimony to his talent, as he drove through a chaotic race from fourteenth on the grid to the chequered flag. That was the high point before the low this month when his Honda team announced that they were walking out of Formula One. Unless the team can find a buyer in the next few weeks, Button will be out of a job.
If Button, who will turn 29 next month, is forced to take a year's sabbatical, memories in Formula One are short and a year off could easily turn into a lifetime out of a sport many thought he would dominate.
Perhaps some fans will struggle to sympathise with a man who is estimated conservatively to be worth £30 million, has had a string of beautiful girlfriends, lives in an apartment in Monaco and has a collection of £200,000 cars.
The most famous anecdote about George Best could almost be applied to Button: Best told the story of how, when he had controversially walked out on Manchester United at the height of his powers, he checked into a five-star hotel with a former Miss World and ordered a bottle of the establishment's finest champagne. A waiter arrived with the bottle and took in the scene of a semi-naked Miss World and £15,000 in cash strewn across the bed. He shook his head and said: “Where did it all go wrong, Mr Best?”
It is not quite Button's story. For one thing, Best walked out of football garlanded with honours, with European Cup and league winner's medals and as a European Footballer of the Year. Best was also an alcoholic. Button, by contrast, is one of the most dedicated men in sport, putting himself through a punishing exercise regime and maintaining his commitment throughout Honda's lean years. Where Best walked, Button stayed and tried harder. Button has come up against Schumacher, the most successful driver in history, and, if he is forced to leave the sport, it is with a near-empty Formula One trophy cabinet.
When Hamilton took to the track, Schumacher had retired and he was up against a new Ferrari driver, the mercurial Kimi Raikkonen, plus Fernando Alonso, his team-mate and twice a world champion, whose ego proved as frail as his loyalty to his new McLaren team. Hamilton's arrival was timed to perfection: McLaren Mercedes had not had a world champion driver since Mika Hakkinen, in 1999, when Hamilton walked into the garage at the Australian Grand Prix in March, 2007, for his first race. He was third, the start of an astonishing run of nine consecutive podium finishes, including two victories. By the end of the season, he had two further wins but lost the championship by a point to Raikkonen.
This year, Hamilton made up for it with a title win that will be talked about for years. Needing to finish fifth in Brazil, the final grand prix of the season, to clinch the championship, Hamilton appeared to have made a hash of the job going into the final lap, having been passed by Sebastian Vettel. Only then, with virtually yards remaining, did he reclaim fifth from Timo Glock in a Toyota with shredding tyres. Hamilton's timing was perfect again and he became champion by a point.
Luck or divine intervention? Whatever it was, Button has enjoyed neither. With Hamilton looking forward to another spectacular year, Britain's other Formula One star can, like George Best's waiter, only wonder: “Where did it all go wrong?”
source:the london times