Button feeling the heat as championship nears climax
CHAMPIONSHIP leader Jenson Button has confessed he is finding it hard to resist the temptation to play it safe as he closes in on a maiden drivers’ title.
Button is in the enviable position of holding a 14-point lead at the top of the standings with just four races left. On the other hand, the Briton has more to lose than any other driver and, ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, he admits the fear of blowing the title is affecting his mentality.
“It is a great position to be in and I’m very privileged to be leading the championship but it’s also a tricky one as a driver as you are here to win and challenge for victory,” Button said.
“You can also think that I only have to finish just behind my team-mate Rubens Barrichello in every race now and I would still win the championship by six or eight points. It is a difficult one but I think as soon as you start backing off and taking it easier that is when problems start.
“You have got to go out and be aggressive but it is always in the back of your mind about finishing the races and being consistent.”
As racing returns to Singapore, scene of the Crashgate scandal that this week saw Renault handed a suspended ban, F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has warned the team’s former chief Flavio Briatore against pursuing legal action.
Briatore was handed an indefinite ban for his role in the race-fixing plot, and Ecclestone has told the Italian appealing through the governing body would be wiser.
“He should appeal to the FIA,” said Ecclestone, the sport’s commercial rights holder. “If he goes to a civil court I don’t think he would win because the FIA would have to defend and somebody will say he sent a young guy out to what could have been his death. So it wouldn’t go down too well.”