Button favourite to win McLaren battle against Hamilton: Sir Jackie Stewart

London, Apr 30(ANI): Former Scottish Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart believes that reigning champion Jenson Button is the favourite to beat Lewis Hamilton at McLaren and potentially become the first Briton to claim back-to-back world titles.

Stewart had earlier said that Button had entered a “lion’s den” by choosing to join McLaren, a team that brought Hamilton through the ranks of world motorsport and made him Formula One’s youngest ever world champion in 2008.

However, after two wins in his first four races for the team, Stewart admits he was wrong about Button’s move.

“It is working much better than I think anyone could have expected,” The Telegraph quoted Stewart, as saying.

“I did say that Jenson would be walking into the lion’s den. What he has proved is that he can handle that den very well. That is not to say that he is better than Lewis or vice-versa, but Jenson is in that zone at the moment where he is making the right decisions at the right time.”

“I think if he keeps driving the way he is I would have to say he is the favourite of the two,” he added.

Stewart further said that there does not seem to be any fireworks between Button and Hamilton, as anticipated before the start of the season.

“The drivers themselves seem to get on very well together. There is a good communication there,” Stewart said. (ANI)

Formula One ace Button all set to get new long term Brawn deal

London, May 26 (ANI): Formula One driver Jenson Button, who has made a sensational start this year winning five out of six grand prix races, is all set to commit his long-term future to Brawn GP.

Button, who is leading the driver championships, is now the most sought after driver for a new contract by Formula One teams.

After Honda’s demise, Button was forced to give up his 8 million pound-a-year contract he had with the Japanese manufacturer. It led to Button signing a one-year deal with Brawn, resurrected from Honda’s ashes, and was forced to take a five million pound pay cut, The Independent reports.

The 29-year-old has since rewarded them handsomely by winning in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Barcelona, and on Sunday in Monaco to lead the drivers’ standings by 16 points.

Brawn GP CEO Nick Fry feels such scintillating form will be enough to convince Button to stay, and ensure he is not tempted elsewhere.

“Jenson’s been with us a long time, and we’ve had failures and we’ve had successes. My objective, and our objective, is to have him for the rest of his career, and nothing’s changed on that front,” Fry said.

“It’s mutual that he would like to stay with the team, and after five race wins, we should be able to get something together.”

Asked as to whether Button’s value will rise further if he becomes world champion, Fry said: “I’m sure he and his manager are sitting there thinking his price is going up the whole time. But maybe the sponsorship for the team is going up too, so maybe we can afford it.”

With his win in Monaco, Button joined an all-star cast of drivers to have won five of the first six races after Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher, the paper reports. (ANI)

Hamilton wants to win two more F1 world titles

London, Mar. 22 (ANI): British Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he is not just aiming one more world title, but two.

The next target on the remarkable 24-year-old’s agenda is to match the career haul of his idol Ayrton Senna and win the world drivers’ championship three times.

“People say, ‘Do you want to do what Michael Schumacher’s done?’, but I’ve always said since I was a kid that I would love to be an F1 driver, then be a world champion and then to do what Ayrton did, which is to win three world championships,” the Sunday Mirror Sport quoted him, as saying.

As the world champion Hamilton opens his defense in Australia, he also spills some beans about his secret aspirations.

“I look at Alain Prost and Sir Jackie Stewart. They are multiple world champions and one day I would like to have my name in that group. It would be very cool,” he said.

However, the title of his dream has been accompanied by wounding claims that he is arrogant.

“I never want to hear that kind of thing. Everyone makes mistakes and for sure there is maybe a point where I have come across as being arrogant so I will have to correct that,” he defended.

But he admitted the biggest fight on his agenda will surely come halfway around the world in seven days’ time.

Although hamilton has already prepared himself for the inevitability that he must one day lose the title, that agony will not match the torture of his near-miss by a single point as a rookie in 2007. (ANI)