It's all over for Jenson Button

Mansell at Silverstone
By Phil Huff
August 8 2007

Jenson Button has no hope of ever winning a Formula One world championship, and he's only got himself to blame, says the 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell, suggesting that the Honda Racing F1 driver is simply not hungry enough nor focussed enough to take the title.

"Jenson should have won more races," says Mansell of the 27 year old. "He has under-performed and that is down to him. He had the opportunity and he didn't take it; there won't be any more."

The 'opportunity' Mansell, who won his world championship at the age of 39, talks of is assumed to be the 2006 season, where Jenson scored a single race win but ended up sixth in the drivers championship. Ferrari and Renault won 17 of the 18 races last year, with Michael Schumacher and champion Fernando Alonso taking 14 of those. The Honda RA106, while not a bad car by any means, was never in the same league as the two front running teams. The teams best car is widely recognised as being the BAR-Honda 006 that led BAR to second in the constructors championship behind an utterly dominant Ferrari team.

"Jenson is a great talent, but he was far better years ago than he is now because he was hungry then," continues Mansell. "He's got a great reputation for partying and that's taken the edge off it. He's a typical example of too much, too soon.

"He'll have a great lifestyle but he's had his opportunities and it hasn't happened for him."

Nigel Mansell was last seen in Formula One in 1995, parking his McLaren after 18 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth race of the season, and going home for good. He had missed the first two races of the season after McLaren produced a car too small for Mansell's frame.

Mansell told fans in April 2006 that Button could win the championship, saying "do I think he could get the right package and have the right opportunity to be world champion, then yes. I hope he does it - it's about time we had another world champion in England. But he's like a number of F1 drivers - on his day and in certain parts of any race he's fantastic. He just needs to give it 100% all of the time."