Left field

How will Button rate as a champion?

Jenson Button needs at most six points to clinch the Formula One title in Brazil this weekend and become Britain’s 10th world champion.

If he does wrap it up at Interlagos, a debate that has been going on for some weeks now will only pick up speed — just how does the 29-year-old rate as a champion compared to all the others?

There are some who hold the view that Button will somehow not be a truly worthy champion, their opinions influenced by the Brawn driver’s inability to assert himself in the latter part of the season.

Some might argue that champions like Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Lewis Hamilton made their greatness evident from the moment they arrived in the sport.

They could add that someone like Button, who had to wait seven years for his first win and scored a total of just nine points in the 2007 and 2008 seasons combined in a dire spell with now-departed Honda, is surely not on a par with them.

Did he simply luck into a dominant car, thanks to rule changes wrong-footing the usual suspects until halfway through the season, or is he being rewarded for his loyalty to a Brawn team that some were writing off as dead and buried back in January?

There is no arguing that, after winning six of the first seven races, Button has struggled. He finished this month’s Japanese Grand Prix in eighth place and is limping agonisingly to the finish, his early advantage seeing him through.

Will there be a Japanese Grand Prix next year?

Toyota-owned Fuji’s announcement that they are pulling the plug on hosting the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix leaves a question mark over the country’s future on the championship calendar.

Fuji had been due to host the race next year as part of an agreement to alternate with Honda-owned Suzuka. However since that deal was done, Honda have pulled out of Formula One and may not have too much of an incentive to pick up the slack.

Kazuki Nakajima is the only current Japanese driver on the starting grid and he is a Toyota protege, racing for Toyota-powered Williams.

Honda pulled out for financial reasons, just as Fuji have now done.

Toyota have yet to win a race since their debut in 2002 but have been much more competitive this season than they were last year. What would Honda gain by picking up the tab for a Japanese grand prix without any of their cars present but that could be won by Toyota?

Asked about the situation on Tuesday, a Honda spokesman said Suzuka had made no decision beyond planning to host the race this year and in 2011 and it was now up to Formula One organisers to decide on the fate of next year’s race.

Japan is important to give the championship a truly global feel, particularly now that there are no North American races, and has been on the calendar without fail since 1987.

Button the Bollard?

Formula One championship leader Jenson Button came up with a nice riposte to being likened (in terms of speed) to a kerbstone (‘paracarro’) by Renault boss Flavio Briatore:

“He also needs to remember that he tried to employ me for this year.”

If that is indeed the case, then it prompts several observations.

Firstly, was Briatore trying to ditch Nelson Piquet (no great surprise, perhaps) or looking for a replacement for Fernando Alonso?

Piquet, whose rookie season was distinctly lacklustre, was confirmed for 2009 on Nov. 5 — a month before Button’s Honda team, Brawn GP’s predecessors, announced they were pulling out.

Remember that it was Briatore who described the lineup of Piquet and double world champion Fernando Alonso at the time as “one of the most exciting driver pairings with the perfect blend of youth and experience.”

So exciting that he wanted to replace the young Brazilian with a British bollard?

Brawn Supremacy provides F1′s feelgood moment

Brawn GP’s one-two win on their debut in the Australian Grand Prix may turn out to be the feelgood moment of the Formula One year (although maybe not for those locked in the great Melbourne diffuser debate).

Race winner Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were the happiest drivers in the paddock by a very long way on Sunday night and even team owner Ross Brawn seemed momentarily overcome.

This was one of those moments that harked back to the ‘good old days’, when ‘garagiste’ owners could come to a race and beat the well-funded factory boys. The team with no sponsors taking on the corporate might of McLaren and Ferrari and win.

Well, maybe not…

Button’s car was the product of many, many tens — if not hundreds — of millions poured into their team by Honda over the course of a year before pulling out in December.

But that is not to deny the hard work and heartache — real, genuine pain felt by staff facing redundancy at a time of global recession – that went into producing that magical victory.

from Raw Japan:

Toyota’s long and winding F1 road

For not seeing a win since joining Formula One in 2002, Toyota's commitment to the sport is admirable, especially after Honda's pullout in December left the team the last Japanese standing in the glamour sport.

Toyota have been one of F1's biggest spenders, with an estimated annual budget of $300 million, previously exceeded only by Honda. But the question for the sport's perennial underachievers remains just how much cash do they have left to burn?

Team principal Tadashi Yamashima told me on Monday that Toyota had been close to following Honda out of the sport, and the Cologne-based team's budget has been slashed several times as the world's No.1 car maker  is set to suffer its first ever annual operating loss.

Honda blamed their own exit from F1 on the need to cut costs and Toyota's survival in the sport was by no means clear-cut. A renewed sponsorship deal with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic was said to be a factor in their continued F1 presence.

"I had never seen such cost cuts in all my time at Toyota," Yamashina said, adding that dozens of contract workers lost their jobs as the team was forced to streamline F1 operations.

Still, Toyota are upbeat about their chances in the new season that begins in Melbourne on March 29.

Brawn GP gets the nod as the new Honda

We wondered about a name and now we have it — Brawn GP.

The former Honda Formula One team has been saved and will race this season as Brawn GP under new owner Ross Brawn, a former Ferrari technical director.

Britain’s Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, last year’s Honda line-up, will continue to drive for the British-based team with the first race in Australia little more than three weeks away on March 29.

Brawn GP, whose change of name is subject to the agreement of the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA), will use Mercedes engines under a deal with McLaren’s partners. No financial details were given.

“Honda Motor Company Limited and Ross Brawn are pleased to confirm that they have reached agreement to secure the future of the former Honda Racing F1 Team,” the statement said.

“With immediate effect, Honda will pass ownership to Ross Brawn, Team Principal of the new Brawn GP Formula One Team.”

What’s in a Formula 1 name?

What do you call the Formula One team with no name?

The question is not merely rhetorical but one faced by anyone writing about the team formerly known as Honda (how about TFKAH?) who are expected to carry out a shakedown of their new Mercedes-powered car at Silverstone this week.

They could then go testing in Barcelona, with no news yet on when a long-awaited management buyout will be confirmed.

Honda announced in December that they were pulling out of the sport, putting the future of their team and British driver Jenson Button in limbo.

Although they have formally entered the championship as Honda Racing F1, anything powered by a Mercedes engine is clearly not a Honda.

As Bernie Ecclestone told the Times newspaper last month: “We should stop talking about Honda because they are gone. This is now a limited liability company which used to be owned by Honda (but) which they want to sell.”

Fine. So what are they to be called now? And what name would suit them best for the season starting in Australia on March 29?