Damon Hill: Honda are wasting Button

By Phil Huff
August 6 2007

Formula One's last British champion, Damon Hill, feels that Honda Racing F1 are wasting the abilities of Jenson Button, with last year's Hungarian Grand Prix winner languishing on just a single point this year. Team mate Rubens Barrichello is faring even worse, with no points to show for his efforts.

"Honda are totally wasting his talent," explained Hill, the 1996 world champion and current BRDC president, echoing the comments he made back in March of this year. "He's a fast guy, he can win races, and he's wilting away there.

"He's 27 so he should be in the prime of his career. He deserves better.

"He'd be a real asset to a front running team at the moment. I can name a few that would be much better with him. And Honda just aren't a front-running team."

Jenson Button arrived in Formula One with Williams-BMW, before moving to BAR-Honda via an unsuccessful spell at Renault, but has never had a truly race winning car.

"I think here last year we had a good car," Button told The Red Bulletin, "but winning was down to me doing a great job and the team doing a fantastic job on strategy and coping with the changing conditions. But no, I've never had the best car."

With Button suggesting that he'd rather walk away than suffer years of uncompetitive machinery, time could be running out for Honda to provide such a car.