Formula 1 is only exciting when drivers overtake and it is not all about who has the best car – and that is what makes the battle for supremacy between Britain’s MacLaren team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button more interesting than the race for the world championship.
Sebastian Vettel has been so dominant in his Red Bull car that the F1 season is already a forgone conclusion with five races remaining. The German needs just one more point to make certain of a successful defence of his crown and he will almost certainly be champion even if he does not bother turning up to race again after his success in Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Meanwhile in the duel between the MacLaren duo we have an intriguing clash of styles. The more conservative reliability of 2009 world champion Button against the more aggressive driving style of the 2008 world champion Hamilton.
On this season’s showing the world championship standings show that second placed Button is currently in better form than fifth placed Hamilton. But there can be little doubt who is the sport’s most exciting driver. Hamilton is the entertainer who makes the sport interesting. The question is will he ever again find the consistency needed to win a world title?
In China and Germany Hamilton delivered two of the greatest wins of the season. But his aggression back-fired in Monaco, again in Canada when he collided with his team-mate, in Belgium when he crashed out after misjudging an overtaking move; and this weekend in Singapore he got into two altercations in two days with Massa.
Love him or hate him, the sport of motor racing would be so much poorer without Lewis Hamilton.
