on air diary...
Jenson's weekend? Kazuki's Cookies!
posted by Lee McKenzie on 02/10/2009
This is the weekend where Jenson Button could win his maiden title. There are lots of variables, mathematics (which I am very bad at) and things which need to happen but I will try and explain them all here. More easy to wrap up this weekend for Brawn is the Constructor's championship. What an amazing year it has been.
And what a week it has been for me, after a couple of lovely days relaxing in the Singapore sun we have moved to a soggy Suzuka - although it is great to be back at such a historic track. The last time I was here was in 1998 when Mika Hakkinen clinched the championship, could I see Jenson doing the same thing, at the same track 11 years on?
I visited the fan shopping area this morning, purely for research purposes of course and the there were some hilarious things on offer. Jenson Button biscuits and cushions all in the shape of his helmet. Kazuki Nakajima has his own shop -he has Kazuki Cookies too!
The atmosphere with the fans was fantastic and the following for Jenson and for Brawn is huge. So what must Jenson do this weekend to win the championship?
Basically, this weekend Button needs to be 20 points clear at the end of the race or the following:
Jenson/ Rubens
1/ Lower than 3rd
2/ Lower than 5th
3/ Lower than 7th
4/ No Score
5+/ Moves on to Brazil
Not since 1969 has a British driver been F1 World Champion in successive seasons, when Jackie Stewart followed 1968 World Champion Graham Hill to become F1 World Championship. To have Lewis and then Jenson would be something which none of us could have predicted this time last year. Back to back British champion? Most of us this time last year would have put a bet on Lewis.
We should keep saying if and not when, as there still are others in contention, but IF Button does win the title this year it will be only the 5th time that a British driver has followed immediately another British driver to win the title. Jim Clark was the first in 1963 (to follow Graham Hill in 1962). John Surtees followed Clark in 1964, Clark followed Surtees in 1965 and of course Stewart followed Hill in 1969.
It puts the whole thing into context and shows really what a historical moment we could and hopefully will be witnessing sooner rather than later - not to take anything away from Rubens Barrichello or even Sebastian Vettel, who are both absolute pleasures to interview. It is pleasing from my point of view that three great drivers, talkers and guys are the ones who are fighting it out at the top. That would of course have included Mark Webber had he not had a terrible evening in Singapore.
It is also interesting and refreshing to see Webber teaming up with Christian Horner to have their own GP3 team. He has always said he wants to put something back into the sport and now MW Arden will do just that - expect a couple of Australian drivers to be coming to F1 in the future!
But back to the title race...make sure you set your alarms nice and early - our qualifying show starts at 5am and the race programme is also at 5am!
I have a pretty busy time before Brazil with 4 days filming next week in Scotland for another BBC show - it involves horses, not horse power and I'm sure will throw up some amusing, if not painful stories. Also before the end of the season I am going to give you all an insight into some of the other TV crews who I work with in F1 and some of the funny behind the scenes stories from the season.
In the meantime, enjoy the race weekend and thanks for dropping by.
Lee x
