Sports / Motor Racing |
Button is up there with Alonso, say Honda
(Reuters)Updated: 2006-12-13 16:26 Jenson Button's Honda team have laughed off comments by McLaren boss Ron Dennis suggesting that the Briton had no more to offer than Formula One rookie Lewis Hamilton. Comparing himself to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson in dealing with the barbs of Chelsea rival Jose Mourinho, team boss Nick Fry said the remarks were part of the game. "I'm in the Sir Alex Ferguson camp," he told Reuters on Tuesday. "And in line with his comments about the way Jose Mourinho behaves, these what I would call 'silly little niggles' really do nothing to the opposition at all apart from kind of making a smile." Dennis told reporters last month, after 21-year-old Briton Hamilton was confirmed as a McLaren driver, that world champion Fernando Alonso, Ferrari-bound Kimi Raikkonen and the retiring Michael Schumacher were in a class of their own. He said McLaren had, in making their decision to sign Hamilton for 2007, assessed all the drivers on the F1 starting grid and been unimpressed by most of them. "If you take out the recognised top three, one of whom retired, we felt that in looking at the others...there was no-one who really shone," he told reporters. Fry said Button had now clearly joined that elite. "I believe that Jenson is up there with both Alonso and Raikkonen as the top three," he said. "There's others that will do well from time to time but in terms of consistently high performance he's in the top three without a shadow of a doubt. "Lewis Hamilton will do extremely well, I have absolutely no doubt about that, but it will probably take a little bit of time," he said. "He may do well in the first race but I think we've seen with other younger drivers that it takes a bit of experience to do well in every race. And in order to compete for the championship, you've got to do well in every race. CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL "Jenson is the consummate professional, he drives himself very, very hard and there's not been one time in the last couple of years...where I've felt he's really put a foot out of place." Button was the only driver outside of Ferrari and Renault to win a race this year, taking his first grand prix victory in Hungary in August after 113 starts. He also finished the season strongly, coming from 14th on the grid to third in the Brazilian season-ender. Fry said the breakthrough win in Hungary had boosted Button's confidence. "Before the race (in Brazil) we were very clear that to have a chance of getting on the podium from 14th on the grid he had to overtake six cars on the first two laps," he said. "Jenson said 'I can do that'. It wasn't a matter of persuading him, it was 'I definitely can do that'. And he did. And I think that is really the difference after Hungary compared to prior to that." However the Englishman has not driven a Formula One car since the end of the season in October after suffering two hairline fractures to his ribs while go-karting. "I think the rest will do him good," said Fry. "He'll come back fighting in January and he will be extremely strong next year. "I think (Brazilian team mate) Rubens (Barrichello) as well, in his second year in the team, is going to be strong and that's going to push Jenson to even higher heights. "I think we'll have a good year next year."
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